DREAM Act Portal Forum - Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham Unveil Bill

Here it is guys! The Bridge Act

WASHINGTON ― Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled legislation on Friday to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation under President-elect Donald Trump ― now the question is whether it will work.

The bill, called the Bridge Act, would effectively maintain the protections of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. More than 740,000 young people were granted deportation reprieve and work permits under the program, but could now lose those protections, should Trump follow through on a promise to end DACA immediately upon taking office.

The Durbin-Graham measure could serve two purposes: If it passes, so-called Dreamers could live without constant fear of deportation and continue to legally work and drive. If it doesn’t, it could still put pressure on Trump to keep away from DACA recipients.

Democrats, joined by only a few Republicans, are scrambling to find ways to protect the Dreamers they’ve urged to come forward to the government. Durbin has been one of the top advocates for Dreamers. He introduced the Dream Act that gave them their name in 2001 and he pushed for Obama to create DACA when that legislation failed.

The Dream Act would have granted Dreamers a path to legal status, as would the 2013 immigration reform bill that Durbin and Graham helped draft. Their new bill would put DACA recipients into a new type of status, “provisional protected presence,” ― that they could extend for three-year terms ― beyond the two-year protections under DACA, Durbin said Friday on the Senate floor. It would not be constrained to only those who currently have DACA: eligible individuals who have not yet applied could be granted provisional protected presence as well, he said.

The Bridge Act should be later replaced with broader immigration reform, Durbin said.

In his pitch for the bill, Durbin quoted Trump’s recent comments on DACA recipients that were, at least in tone, relatively sympathetic to them. Like Trump’s previous efforts at softening on immigration, this should probably be taken with many grains of salt. A Trump aide later told the Associated Press that the president-elect still plans to end DACA.

“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud. But that’s a very tough situation,” Trump told Time Magazine. “They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Durbin also noted that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) had expressed sympathy for DACA recipients.

“We should have something that balances the concerns of all parties involved and makes sure that we don’t pull the rug out from under people,” Ryan said on Thursday during a press conference.

Some Democrats have argued that Obama should do something more to protect DACA recipients before he leaves office. The White House has said that isn’t an option, especially House Democrats’ pleas for him to issue pardons for DACA recipients. Those Democrats say this would be legal and that he can do so for civil offenses even in a way that would preemptively pardon future unlawful presence in the U.S.; White House officials and Durbin say that is not the case.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest once again shot down the idea of pardons for DACA recipients. He said Obama and his team were briefing Trump and his team on why they decided to create the program and its benefits.

“We’re also continuing to encourage Congress to take action,” Earnest said in a press briefing. “Ultimately, the kind of executive action that President Obama has pursued was largely pursued because of congressional inaction.”

Link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0f9723d005cd5