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On ‘Dreamers’ Deal, Democrats Face a Surprising Foe: The Dreamers

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John Feehery, a Republican strategist, said a Democratic pushback on border security would reinforce “the perception that the Democratic Party has largely abandoned and forgotten about the white working class.”

So far, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leaders, are staying pragmatic, even in the face of protests that have been personal and cutting. (Activists called Ms. Pelosi a liar in San Francisco.)
They have already signaled that they are willing to consider Republican demands for increased enforcement along the border with Mexico in exchange for a legislative fix to the threatened Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which protects young immigrants brought to the country as children.

“It is naïve for us to believe that we will get 12 Republicans to vote for DACA or the Dream Act without putting something on the table,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, an original co-author of the Dream Act, which would offer a path to citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. “There’s always going to be a group that wants more. There are some people who want all or nothing. I consider this to be a world of reality that I live in.”

Democrats need to be mindful not just of white working-class voters but all voters, said Cornell Belcher, who worked as one of President Barack Obama’s pollsters during his 2008 presidential campaign. Democrats have to “thread a fine needle,” he said, because polls show that voters broadly “feel as though their borders need to be more secure.”

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Publicly, those young immigrants and their allies say they will not accept what they consider draconian measures in exchange for a deal on DACA, or on the Dream Act, the bill dating back to 2001 that would provide a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants brought in illegally as children.

“I think Senator Schumer crumbles under pressure just so he can deliver on something,” said Cesar Adrian Vargas, an immigrant-rights advocate and a DACA recipient. “And his results are anything but productive.”
But the larger constellation of immigrant-rights groups are divided.

Veteran activists view the no-compromise strategy as shortsighted and unlikely to succeed. While few said they were willing to work directly with Mr. Trump the way they worked with Mr. Bush during past immigration fights, they also said they recognized the need to compromise.

Janet Murguía, president of UnidosUS, formerly known as the National Council of La Raza, said that she understood that Mr. Trump would need to be part of the deal, but that she cringed at the thought of ever reaching out to a president who kicked off his campaign by claiming that Mexican immigrants were “rapists” and “criminals” and who often told crowds across the Midwest that immigrants threatened their jobs.

“I don’t think someone who is literally throwing rocks at you and demonizing you can have credibility at the table to say they want to engage,” Ms. Murguía said.

White House officials have not been on strategy conference calls organized by the immigration groups, as some of Mr. Bush’s aides were during the legislative efforts to pass an immigration overhaul in 2006 and 2007. But immigration activists and lawmakers who went through those unsuccessful fights said they could not win without compromising with the president.

That drama is likely to play out at the end of the year as lawmakers in both parties face a mid-December deadline to fund the government and extend some popular initiatives like the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The expectation is that Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, will allow the immigration issue to be settled as part of the budget deal.

If that happens, some immigration rights activists say Democrats will have no choice but to accept some Republican demands in exchange for legalizing the young immigrants.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politi...cid=spartandhp