Shortly after the Senate’s immigration debate concluded Thursday in abject failure, leaving the fate of the Dreamers still up in the air, three Republicans senators who had voted against the bipartisan compromise introduced a new, fallback plan. The proposal from Sens. John Thune, Rob Portman, and Jerry Moran would not offer a path to citizenship for Dreamers, as the bipartisan bill proposed, but would instead pair $25 billion in border security with renewable work permits for the narrower pool of those currently covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
This proposal should not be taken seriously. If, as Portman said in the statement accompanying the proposal, he believes that “[t]hose in the DACA program are here through no fault of their own, and for many this is the only country they know,” why did he vote against the bill protecting them that had the best chance of passing the Senate? Why did Thune and Moran, who express similar sentiments, do the same?
Let’s do a spot of math. The Rounds–King bipartisan bill received 54 votes. The three Democrats who voted against it waited until it was clear the bill would not have enough Republican support to cast their votes, suggesting that they would have reluctantly supported it if needed. Had, say, Sens. Portman, Thune, and Moran supported the bill, it could have received 60 votes and passed the Senate, protecting those in the DACA program who “are here through no fault of their own.”
Instead, Portman, Thune, and Moran waited for that bill to fail so that they could introduce a fallback measure shifting the goal posts further right, making a mockery of their professed desire to protect Dreamers. They didn’t support a bill that paired $25 billion in border security with a path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers, but they do support a bill that would pair that $25 billion in border security with temporary protections for significantly fewer. If they think protecting Dreamers is the Right Thing to Do, why are they diluting the offer?
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