An Immigration Compromise That Makes Sense

Red neck · 02-06-2018, 11:03 AM

It seems increasingly likely that, on immigration, Congress will face a stark choice in the weeks ahead. It can either pass a narrowly drawn bill that attends to border security and provides legal status for Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. Or it can fail across the board.

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware have introduced legislation designed to achieve the better outcome. Their bill is similar to a bipartisan effort already introduced in the House, where it is co-sponsored by 27 Republicans and 27 Democrats.

It would grant legal status to Dreamers who’ve been in the U.S. since 2013, a population of approximately 1.8 million. The legislation would require the secretary of Homeland Security to produce a southern border security strategy, including “physical barriers,” to gain operational control and “situational awareness” along the border.

In other words, it requires construction of a strategic plan to improve security rather than construction of a wall, built willy-nilly at fantastic expense, to feign security.

Naturally, a basic immigration compromise that accomplishes sensible goals has committed enemies. President Donald Trump has already announced his opposition. And this bill is certainly far from the kind of comprehensive solution, involving limits on family sponsorships and a bigger emphasis on skills, that is required.

Nonetheless, it represents progress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised to allow a debate on immigration if no deal is reached and Democrats help him keep the government open for a few more weeks. It’s a measure of how degraded the Senate has become that even debate on a vital national issue is up for negotiation, but there’s no use pretending the Senate is the great deliberative body of yore.

Democrats should meet McConnell’s demand, voting later this week to keep the lights on, and McConnell should in turn fulfill his promise. It’s entirely possible that there are 60 votes in the Senate to do the right thing. Coons is already proposing to add more security provisions to entice more Republicans to support the bill.

A win in the Senate would then focus attention on the House. Speaker Paul Ryan has so far shown every inclination to allow his party’s extremists to ruin any chance of success – even though the existence of 27 Republican co-sponsors signals that a simple compromise on Dreamers and border security could win majority support.

Of course, if Congress were sensitive to majorities, the Dreamer and border security provisions, supported by large majorities of voters, would already be law. If Ryan and company can break out of their partisan straitjacket for a day or two, perhaps they still can be.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...-the-memo-wars

Red neck · 02-06-2018, 11:05 AM

Young people should be treated as non-combatants in any war. That’s especially true when the kids are de facto Americans who were educated in American schools and raised on America’s ideals.

Yet the White House has begun an insidious redefinition of "Dreamers" from innocents in the immigration wars to outsiders who not only don't belong here, but are getting in the way of an agenda for the American people.

Donald Trump is doing this in several ways.

2 ways Trump is hurting dreamers
First, he is coupling dreamer legalization to building the border wall. If there's no wall, there's no legalization for dreamers, he says.

He repeated that position in response to a bipartisan proposal from Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Christopher Coons that provides help for young people protected by DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – and addresses border security, but not the wall.

Trump’s second strategy to undermine strong public support for dreamers was launched during the State of the Union, when he said: "Americans are dreamers, too.”

Of course they are. No one said they weren’t.

Trump’s phrase is drenched in resentment. It implies dreamers really don't belong here and their needs are being considered before the needs of the American people.

If they are seen as outsiders, it is easier to ignore their plight.

But they are not outsiders.

Deportation wastes a crucial resource
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DACA and dreamers: How we got here
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Opinion polls have long suggested that most Americans
Opinion polls have long suggested that most Americans want to protect 'dreamers,'theyoung undocumented immigrants who have spent most of their lives in this country.But those protections have been slow to materialize. Consider the timeline: Photo by Tom Tingle/The Republic
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Opinion polls have long suggested that most Americans1 of 10
2001: The first Development, Relief and Education for
2010: The Dream Act of 2010 gets closer than previous
2012: As immigration reform stalls, President Obama
2013: Arizona sues Maricopa Community Colleges to stop
2014: Obama attempts to expand DACA, but states successfully
2016: Donald Trump promises to end DACA as a candidate
2017: Trump issues an executive order to ramp up deportations
2017: Attorneys general threaten to sue if Trump does
2017: A revised, bipartisan version of the Dream Act
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10 Photos
DACA and dreamers: How we got here
Use of the term “dreamer” for undocumented young people who were raised in this country was intended to show how much like us they are. They share our dreams.

They are not trying to steal them.

They are a group of undocumented people who did not commit what many see as the original sin of crossing the border illegally. They were brought here as children. They committed no crime.

Deporting them to countries they do not know is not just cruel, it represents the waste of a national resource. These young people are committed to our country. They are young, energetic and ready to make contributions to the only country they call home.

The president focuses on a few young undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes as another part of a twisted strategy to suggest that any sympathy for dreamers is misplaced.

It is an intellectually dishonest justification for ignoring the strong public support for helping law-abiding young people become fully participating members of our society.

Trump knows dreamers are screened and must pass rigorous background checks. So would any measure Congress passes to help them gain legal status.

Why McCain's bill is the better way

President Trump is holding DACA recipients hostage for his border wall, columnist EJ Montini says. U.S. Sen. John McCain has a better idea.

That brings us to the McCain-Coons bill, which is similar to a bill bipartisan bill in the House offered by Republican Rep. Will Hurd and Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar.

Neither includes the billions for a wall that Trump wants. Both include assessing and improving operational control of the border, with the requirement for the secretary of Homeland Security to submit a plan to Congress for border security.

If the wall is a good idea, it will be part of the plan.

If it is a good use of taxpayer money, it will survive scrutiny by Congress as part of a larger immigration package.

KELLI WARD: Fund Trump's border wall before we extend DACA

The same is true of other hot-button issues Trump wants to tie to the dreamers, such as family-based migration (derisively called “chain migration” by hardliners) and the diversity lottery program.

Making the wall and major policy changes the price for protecting dreamers would be a humiliation to Democrats and their large Latino constituency. This, too, shows how the administration is using young people for political purposes.

Trump created a March 5 deadline for ending the Obama-era DACA program that gave dreamers temporary protection. That makes it look like he is in control.

What’s more, another budget deadline looms, which puts more pressure on Congress.

Help dreamers first, then fight for that
But Congress should remember that it is a co-equal branch of government.

It was designed to do much more than submit to the president.

House and Senate members should use their law-writing power to shape protections for dreamers. These urgently needed protections should not be tied to controversial changes in immigration policy – changes that should be debated later as part of a larger immigration reform package.

Congress long has failed to do the hard work of passing immigration reform. If Trump is the skilled negotiator he claims to be, he may be able to help them make progress.

But Congress is the controlling authority here, and the first task is protecting dreamers.

Congress needs to reject the White House attempt to marginalize the dreamers and use them as negotiating tools in a larger fight.

Congress needs to give long overdue legal status to the dreamers first -- and fight the other battles over immigration soon after.

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