In Congress, parties still far apart on fixing DACA

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...mocrats-242697

House leaders can’t even agree on how long they have to find a legislative solution for the Dreamers, throwing another kink in the already delicate talks to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) met with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and other Democrats involved in the Dreamer talks Wednesday afternoon.


“This afternoon the speaker and majority leader met with a number of House Democrats at their request to discuss DACA, and they reiterated that any solution needs to address border security and enforcement, which are the root causes of the problem," AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for Ryan, said in a statement, referring to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. "Discussions among the Republican conference will continue in the coming weeks.”

Congressional leaders left the meeting tight-lipped — “We understand each other,” Pelosi quipped as she exited the speaker’s office — but sources said afterward that both sides appear far from agreement on the looming deadline.

Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) later Wednesday left dinner with Trump signaling that the president shared their sense of urgency to pass a bill providing certainty for Dreamers.

“We had a very productive meeting at the White House with the President. The discussion focused on DACA,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement after the dinner.

"We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides.”

The dinner agreement could change the DACA discussion on Capitol Hill. Earlier, during the House meeting, Republican leaders insisted they had six months, until March, to codify protections for Dreamers.

That’s the runway President Donald Trump said he was giving Congress last week after deciding to end DACA, the Obama-era program that grants work permits to nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought here as children.

[b]But Pelosi and other top Democrats insist the issue must be fixed months sooner — even pushing for action in the next few weeks.

Democrats want to see a legislative solution by Oct. 5, the deadline for current DACA recipients whose permits expire during the six-month period to renew their applications.

Both sides privately agree that deadline is unlikely. The House is out for recess next week and Republican leaders have barely started talking to their conference about what kind of immigration package their members could support.

In the meantime, Democratic leaders said they plan to continue to play hardball, threatening to push a discharge petition in the coming weeks or trying to attach a Dreamer bill to other must-pass legislation.

Democratic leaders also made clear that if DACA isn’t addressed before the current Dec. 8 government funding deadline, Republicans would have to include a legislative fix in the spending bill if they want Democratic votes.

Republican leaders stressed the Wednesday meeting was just a “listening session” and not the start of formal negotiations, according to multiple sources.

Ryan also brought up the idea of convening working groups in the coming weeks that include members from the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees. Pelosi pushed back on the idea somewhat, according to sources, saying certain Judiciary Republicans are likely to do nothing but try to block an immigration deal.

But Republicans may be forced to act sooner than they want. President Donald Trump has said he wants to see a legislative solution sooner rather than later, reiterating that request to a dozen House moderates during a meeting at the White House earlier in the day.

Democratic leaders did acknowledge any deal offering legal status for Dreamers will have to include some border security provisions to entice Republicans.

Pelosi suggested a border security bill sponsored by House Homeland Security Committee leaders Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) in 2013 that received strong bipartisan support could be a good starting point for discussion.

what's your take on that eva

Everything changed the morning after the dinner. This is old news, we're on a whole new playing field now.

Point is republicans won't get shit done.

Only hope is government funding standoff.

Sen.Durbin: We will attach DreamAct to must-pass legislation and put this to a vote soon.
Sen. Schumer: We will attach DreamAct to every bill *offered* in September.
Sen. Graham: DreamAct is the right thing to do.
Rep. Pelosi: DreamAct is the consensus among Congress members.
Rep. Hoyer: We will begin collecting signatures for a discharge petition on 9/14.
Rep. Gutierrez: Leaders Schumer and Pelosi conceded without a concise agreement to bring DreamAct for a vote.

House is off next week September 18th.
Senate is off week of 10/9
House is off week 10/16

DreamAct needs to happen Sept/October to allow enough implementation time.

"If a clean DREAM Act does not come to the floor in September, we are prepared to attach it to other items this fall until it passes," Schumer announced at a press conference with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other colleagues.

I think everyone is in agreement that this is the most important priority for democrats.

Part of me wants to believe Schumer and Pelosi are looking for a solution for DACA. But the cautious part of me is saying that they are probably just trying to save face and just doing it for the show.

I think they realize they will take a lot of blame as well if nothing is done for us.

Might even ruin their leadership roles and piss off progressives ahead of midterms.

I think the reason they didn't attach anything to the recent budget bill is because they want to be able to say, look we gave republicans all of september and fall to bring the DA to a vote, the votes were there and we tried to compromise as well, but they didn't do it.

It gives them cover in the worst case scenario that Republicans would let a govt shutdown happen by not agreeing to Dems legislative terms to pass DA as an amendment.

The most likely scenario is that Republicans will need Dem votes. They'll have to choose if angovt shutdown is more preferable than passing DA. Either way, they'll take the blame as the party in control of government.

Democrats have always been genuine to our cause. The republicans have killed our bill numerous times.

I do agree on their leverage and yes hopefully they do understand that they will be held for accountability. This is no time to play politics with our future.