Senate Blocks Immigration Plans, Deepening Stalemate on Dreamers
U.S. lawmakers will vote on dueling proposals to protect dreamers.
(Bloomberg) -- The Senate blocked four immigration proposals Thursday, deepening a bitter impasse over how to protect 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The rejected proposals included a bipartisan measure that would provide $25 billion for border security and a path to citizenship for the young immigrants -- a plan the White House threatened to veto amid harsh criticism by President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Homeland Security. It failed to advance 54-45, with 60 needed.
A separate measure that lost on a 39-60 vote reflected the president’s proposals, which included citizenship and border funds while also ending a diversity visa lottery and imposing strict limits on family-based migration.
In threatening a veto of the bipartisan plan, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement it would encourage "millions of additional minors to be smuggled into the United States" and is "dangerous policy that will harm the nation." Trump said on Twitter the measure would create a "giant amnesty."
In return, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York called Trump "obstinate" and said the president "has stood in the way of every single proposal that has had a chance of becoming law." A group of Democratic and Republican senators agreed on the proposal Wednesday after weeks of negotiations.
‘Electoral Futures’
The second-ranking Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, said after the votes that the chamber will have another opportunity to address the dreamers, perhaps in a massive spending bill that must be passed by March 23. He suggested senators might decide on a temporary extension of protection for dreamers along with increased border security. GOP Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said one idea under discussion was a three-year extension.
"All this means we didn’t close off debate so we are still debating," Cornyn said. Thursday’s votes show "what the tolerance is for different ideas," he said.
Immigration is bound to be a major issue in November’s election, when all of the House and one-third of the Senate will be on the ballot. Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, an immigration hard-liner, lashed out at the GOP lawmakers who joined with a group of Democrats on the bipartisan measure after weeks of negotiations.
"Any Republican who votes yes on it should be concerned for their electoral futures," he said.
The Trump administration had encouraged Republican senators to drop their sponsorship of the bipartisan plan. One White House official suggested the Republican sponsors may have been misled into supporting it. The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity and refused repeated requests to be named, also attacked one of the bipartisan group’s lead negotiators, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, saying he’s been an obstacle to getting immigration legislation through Congress.
Graham on Thursday accused the Department of Homeland Security of interfering in politics in its statement that criticized the immigration proposal and said that it showed Trump’s staff isn’t serving him well. He has previously described White House domestic policy adviser as Stephen Miller as “outside the mainstream” on immigration.
1.8 Million
The bipartisan plan would give 1.8 million young immigrants a path to citizenship and provide $25 billion for border security. The separate plan backed by the Trump administration and Republican leaders would include those provisions plus other Trump priorities, including strict limits on family-based migration and an end to a diversity visa lottery.
The president wants to limit family-based immigration to spouses and minor children, in a policy that would apply to all legal immigrants, not just dreamers.
In a hardball tactic, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky decided a vote on the GOP plan would come last. That made it harder for GOP lawmakers who might be willing to back the more modest bipartisan measure, which was conceived by a group of senators that included eight Republicans. They wouldn’t be able to see if the Trump plan failed first and then move to the pared-down bipartisan measure as a fallback.
‘Mass Amnesty’
Sessions called the bipartisan plan a "mass amnesty" that "will invite a mad rush of illegality across our borders." The Department of Homeland Security said it "would be the end of immigration enforcement in America and only serve to draw millions more illegal aliens with no way to remove them."
Graham said in a statement that DHS was acting "like a political organization intent on poisoning the well." He added, "Statements like this undermine confidence in DHS and make one question whether they can rationally engage with the Congress on this issue."
Maine Republican Susan Collins, a leader of the bipartisan talks, defended the compromise plan at a news conference.
“This is the one and only bill that deals with immigration issues with broad bipartisan support,” she told reporters.
This week’s Senate action was intended to mark the first serious immigration debate in the chamber since 2013, when senators overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan measure providing legal status to 11 million undocumented immigrants along with a $46 billion border plan. The House never acted, killing the effort.
All sides say they want protection from deportation for the dreamers -- who were brought to the U.S. as children -- but so far they can’t agree on how to do it. Trump seeks to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, as soon as next month. The program has shielded the immigrants from deportation.
The bipartisan compromise emerged after weeks of talks by about two dozen senators, led by Collins and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. McConnell had promised Democrats a debate on immigration to help end last month’s three-day government shutdown.
The Senate voted first on a proposal by Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona would give dreamers a path to citizenship and require the government to implement a border security strategy by 2021. It failed to advance on a 52-47 vote. All of the measures required 60 to move forward.
Failing to advance, 54-45, was a bill by Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania that would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcers.
The bipartisan proposal was the third vote. Eight Republicans joined 46 Democrats in supporting it, while three Democrats and 42 Republicans voted no.
The vote on the Trump plan was last, with three Democrats and 36 Republicans supporting it, and 46 Democrats and 14 Republicans in opposition.
The GOP-led House is taking a different approach from the Senate. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said Wednesday that leaders are checking members’ support for a hard-line measure authored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican. It would allow the young immigrants, known as dreamers, to get only three-year renewable legal status. It would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities and end immigration of extended family members, among other provisions.
“It’s not going to be as easy here in the House as it may be in the Senate,” said Representative Doug Collins, a Georgia Republican. Conservatives there see even Trump’s proposal as too favorable to undocumented immigrants over others who came to this country legally, he said.
--With assistance from Toluse Olorunnipa Ari Natter and Steven T. Dennis
To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net, Sahil Kapur in Washington at skapur39@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Justin Blum
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