DREAM Act Portal Forum - Senate Immigration Debate Ends in Failure

Senate immigration debate ends in failure
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/15/immigration-daca-senate-412459

A bipartisan Dreamer plan and Trump’s proposal were both defeated.
By ELANA SCHOR and BURGESS EVERETT
02/15/2018 10:24 AM EST
Updated 02/15/2018 04:40 PM EST

The Senate's much-hyped immigration debate ended in a megaflop on Thursday.

Every proposal that got considered fell short of the Senate's 60-vote threshold, leaving the undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers in limbo and lawmakers with nothing to show for weeks of negotiations.

A bipartisan agreement was rejected 54-45, after a furious White House campaign to defeat it, including a Thursday veto threat. It would have given an estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship while spending $25 billion on border security.

In the end, only eight Republicans joined all but three Democrats in support of the proposal.

“It’s a pig in a poke,” Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), a close ally of President Donald Trump, said of the bipartisan bill.

But in a blow to Trump, a GOP amendment to enshrine his four-part immigration framework, including cuts to legal immigration, was defeated by an even wider margin — 39-60.

The upshot is stalemate, despite long-running negotiations, particularly among the bipartisan group of mostly moderate senators.

Two other amendments were also rejected: a narrower plan with no border wall funding from Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) on a 52-47 vote, and a sanctuary cities measure from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on a 54-45 vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) opened the day with a round of partisan sniping, signaling the probable failure of both the Trump framework and the bipartisan plan.

“Remember: Democrats wanted this debate," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "They shut down the federal government for 300 million Americans — unnecessarily — to guarantee we could have this debate at this time."

But in the end, McConnell added, Democrats haven't mustered "a single proposal that gives us a realistic chance to make law — that is, pass the Senate, pass the House, and earn the president’s signature."

Schumer directed his frustration at the White House for its campaign to derail the bipartisan immigration deal, accusing Trump of being unwilling to compromise.

"That's not how democracy works," Schumer said. "You don't get 100 percent of what you want in a democracy."

The White House's veto threat against the bipartisan agreement singled out its language directing enforcement officers to, when it comes to the removal of undocumented immigrants who have broken no other laws, prioritize individuals who arrived in the country after June 30, 2018. That policy would "produce a flood of new illegal immigration in the coming months," the White House warned.

The Republican amendment executing the White House's plan was last in the lineup, but supporters of the bipartisan group's proposal had hoped to see their amendment come last in order to corral the highest possible numbers of supporters.

The order of the amendments may turn out to prove crucial, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said before the vote. Flake, a supporter of the bipartisan language, told reporters Wednesday that it "can get 60" but "I'm not sure it will."

The Trump administration stepped up its resistance to the bipartisan immigration amendment overnight, with the Department of Homeland Security releasing a comment blasting it as "an egregious violation of" the president's four-part framework that would create "mass amnesty."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a supporter of the bipartisan proposal, slammed DHS on Thursday for "acting less like a partner and more like an adversary."

"Instead of offering thoughts and advice — or even constructive criticism — they are acting more like a political organization intent on poisoning the well," Graham said in a statement.

A DHS official said that according to internal analyses, the bill could actually give a pathway to citizenship for more than 3 million young immigrants.

The White House has been telling Republican senators that it expects the Supreme Court to overturn the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling extending protections for undocumented immigrants under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The implication is that what is now an indefinite grace period would quickly disappear — and that Democrats would be without leverage and forced to accept more Republican demands in order to codify DACA.

The bipartisan plan also faced a tough path with some liberal Democrats. After the minority met as a group to discuss its options late Wednesday, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) acknowledged that "we have a number of Democrats who do not like" key elements of the bipartisan group's proposal.

Other Democrats "do not like limiting the opportunity for citizenship for Dreamer parents, and they're unhappy with the wall" money, acknowledged Durbin, who has spent more than 15 years working toward a solution for the undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.

Still, most Democrats backed it in the end.

Also... Durbin's Statement on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/SenatorDurbin/status/964248145927557125

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