Dreamer bill faces grim odds in Senate

GOP has grown cool to immigrant protections

WASHINGTON – House Democrats introduced a bill Tuesday that would grant permanent protections to undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, but the fate of those Dreamers will rest in the hands of Senate Republicans, who have struggled for nearly two decades to come up with a solution that they, and their conservative base, can endorse.

There used to be a time when the DREAM Act was accepted by a wide range of Senate Republicans who said it was unfair to punish children for the actions of their parents. The 2003 version of the bill was sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and had 12 other GOP co-sponsors.

But little by little, as the party’s conservative wing began viewing the DREAM Act less as an act of “compassion” and more an act of “amnesty,” the GOP has backed away from the idea. The 2005 version of the bill had nine Republican co-sponsors, the 2007 version had five, the 2009 version had two, and the 2011 version had none.

In 2017, most Senate Republicans quickly tweeted statements supporting President Donald Trump after he announced his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Obama-era program that protected more than 800,000 Dreamers from deportation.

“It’s a situation where members decide this is not an issue that they’re prepared to bleed and die on. There are several out there that support it, but this doesn’t appear to be the time.”

Richard Lugar

Former Republican senator from Indiana, on prospects for Senate action to protect Dreamers

That decision was blocked by courts, leaving Dreamers in limbo and prompting the push by House Democrats to pass a permanent legislative fix for them. Its prospects in today’s Senate GOP caucus appear dire.

Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana who served 36 years in the Senate, was an early supporter of the DREAM Act. He said that even before the tea party movement and the Freedom Caucus and Trump’s zealous band of followers, Republicans agonized between their personal belief that Dreamers were entitled to citizenship and their political concerns over supporting any form of “amnesty.”

That internal battle has become more acute, Lugar said, as polarization has intensified between the parties and within the Republican Party itself. That leaves senators seeing little payoff to support the DREAM Act and all kinds of risks.

“It’s a situation where members decide this is not an issue that they’re prepared to bleed and die on,” Lugar said. “There are several out there that support it, but this doesn’t appear to be the time.”

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., paused Tuesday after USA TODAY asked whether he believed the Senate should take up the House bill. “I’m actually very pro-Dreamers,” he said, but he wouldn’t say how he’d vote on the bill because he hadn’t seen details.

Many of his colleagues were more direct, saying a stand-alone Dreamer bill has no chance. Instead, the White House and most Republicans have endorsed a Dreamer fix only in exchange for billions of dollars in border security or wholesale changes of the legal immigration system.

“The immigration quagmire has changed,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said when asked what has shifted within his party. “Everybody is going to have to give something in order to make progress, that’s what’s changed.”