DREAM Act Portal Forum - Immigration advocates sense a deal taking shape in DACA talks

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/im...rticle/2645165

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Despite recent comments by Republicans that negotiations with Democrats over providing a fix for young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children aren't going well, advocates closely involved with ongoing talks on Capitol Hill are cautiously optimistic.

Immigrant rights advocates close to negotiations told reporters that the “parameters” of a deal are beginning to take shape, and they aren’t concerned about the posturing going on publicly by President Trump who issued a list of priorities Friday, including $18 billion in wall funding. The proposal enraged Democrats who have been working with Republicans to craft a large deal on an omnibus spending bill, funding for children’s health insurance, and protecting so-called Dreamers, among other measures.

“President Trump has said he may need a good government shutdown to get his wall,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, one of the Democrats at the negotiating table. “With this demand, he seems to be heading in that direction.”

The Illinois Democrat added that it’s “outrageous that the White House would undercut months of bipartisan efforts” by releasing a wish list that’s unworkable.

Though the public feud over a border wall between the White House and Democrats hasn’t died down, and Republicans have repeatedly said they are still waiting for a concrete list from Trump on what he’s willing to negotiate on, advocates advising Democrats see a framework forming.

Details remain hazy, but negotiators expect a deal to include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, in exchange for more sensors, drones, fencing, and the like along the border. Democrats have said they are opposed to more border agents and any concrete wall. The White House has recently pushed for limits on family-based migration and the end of of the diversity visa lottery.

But those close to negotiations say the reality inside meetings between Republican and Democratic leaders and White House officials is very different than what Trump is spouting on Twitter. And if the various pieces currently floating around can be limited in scope, they see real momentum for getting a deal done.

“There’s a lot of activity on the Hill right now,” said one advocate close to ongoing talks between lawmakers and the White House. “I think we could see multiple proposals out next week. I can clearly see parameters of a deal.”

Frank Sharry, director of pro-immigration reform group America’s Voice, said there’s no guarantee negotiators will strike a deal, but “the momentum has gone from 10 miles an hour to about 60 miles per hour.”

There’s mistrust with Democrats after they didn’t make immigration a top priority when they controlled Congress and the White House, Sharry admitted, but he says the dynamics have changed.

“'Are Democrats serious?' is a big question.” said Sharry. “I say, yes.”

Activists argue that the difference between now and the previous ten years is that those involved on the ground are all on the same page. Strong progressive groups — like MoveOn, the newly created Indivisible, and Planned Parenthood — that didn’t prioritize a fix for DACA recipients in the past are now loudly pressuring Democrats.

“Underneath the politicians has been a tremendous emergence of a movement,” Sharry said. “And it’s not just Latinos, Asians, and African diaspora folks, it is white progressive allies that have become a fundamental part of this effort — that’s a big change.”

Marshall Fitz, managing director of immigration for the Emerson Collective, agreed, saying Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer D-N.Y. is “locked on” to securing a DACA fix.

“It will get ugly and it will get tense,” Fitz said. “[But] I’ve never seen Sen. Schumer this fully engaged, utterly, totally engaged in this.”

As for the specifics of an agreement, Fitz said Democrats are willing to give plenty, but have hard lines they won’t budge on. And advocates expect the final deal will be something both sides can take home and tout politically.

“Democrats have been very clear that they’re willing to accept significant, probably unnecessary, superfluous expansions of infrastructure, fencing, border roads, sensors, technology, drones, that are in and of themselves kind of a waste of money,” Fitz said.

Concessions like that will allow Trump to say he got his wall, Fritz and Sharry predicted, but it will also allow Democrats to say they blocked Trump’s wall — which he boasted on the campaign trail would be a more than 2,000 mile concrete barrier along the border.

The “deal space” Sharry sees playing out will include an amount of money for technology and “fence repair and augmentation” on the border and “Trump will call it wall.”

“Democrats will say, ‘we did not cave on a wall’, because it’s not going to be a concrete wall,” said Sharry. “Donald Trump will say, ‘I got my wall.’"