The White House unveiled a proposal that provides a way to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants living in the United States illeg...
The White House unveiled a proposal that provides a way to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants living in the United States illegally, against new restrictions on legal immigration and $ 25 billion in border security.
Some members of Congress hailed the plan, which was announced on Thursday, but conservative activists criticized them as "pardon" and drew criticism from a large number of Democrats who accused President Donald Trump of holding the "dreamer" hostage to the militant immigration agenda.
Senior White House officials considered the plan a compromise that could have the support of both parties and enough votes to pass the Senate. But it comes with a long list of concessions that many Democrats, as well as Conservative Republicans, especially in the House, may find it impossible to swallow.
The plan would provide a pathway for citizenship for nearly 690,000 young migrants protected from deportation by the Obama Children's Deferred Program of Action for the Children's Access Program - as well as hundreds of thousands of others who say independent estimates qualify for the program, but have not Cat.
The plan excludes parents
Trump announced last year that he was canceling the program but gave congressional reform until March.
The plan would not allow the immigrants' parents to seek their legal status, officials said.
In contrast, Trump's plan will lead to a radical reform of the legal immigration system. Migrants are only allowed to take care of their spouses and underage children to join them in the United States, not their parents, their adult children or their siblings. Officials said only new applications for visas would be issued, allowing for the processing of people already in place. However, immigration activists said the move could reduce legal immigration by half.
It also ends a visa lottery aimed at diversity, which drew Trump's attention after a New York City truck attack last year, and reallocated the allocation to drop the existing build-up in visa applications.
Reverse to Trump
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly before his release.
Trump said on Wednesday he was open to citizenship for younger immigrants. "We will move to that," Trump told reporters. "It will happen at some point in the future over 10 to 12 years." This was a reflection of the president, who had earlier said he was opposed to citizenship for dreamers.
Under the plan, their legal status could be revoked because of criminal behavior or national security threats, and citizenship would eventually require unspecified work requirements and instructions - and the discovery that migrants "have a good moral character," the officials said.
The Non-Party Migration Policy Institute said it believed that the largest share of the 1.8 million eligible White House citizens - 1.3 million - are people who currently meet all eligibility requirements for the body. These include years in the United States, their age now and when they entered this country, whether they have a high school or equivalent education.
March 5 deadline
Another 400,000 people are eligible for Dhaka protection if not for their education. And 100,000 others are under the age of 15 - the minimum age allowed for most people who seek protection under the program.
Trump ended the DACA program in September, setting a March 5 deadline for Congress to provide legal protections or the program's recipients would once again be subject to deportation. The officials said Trump would only sign legislation providing those protections if the other immigration changes he is proposing are implemented.
U.S. President Donald Trump is in Davos for an economic summit, but his team is sharing details of a proposed immigration plan.(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Trump earlier this month had deferred to a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers to craft an immigration proposal, saying he would sign whatever they passed. But as talks on Capitol Hill broke down — in part because of controversy Trump ginned up using vulgar language to describe African countries — the White House decided to offer its own framework.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others had also complained the president had failed to sufficiently lay out his priorities, leaving them guessing about what he might be willing to sign. One official said the Thursday release represents a plan for the Senate, with the administration expecting a different bill to pass the House.
'Generous and humane'
McConnell thanked the president and his aides for providing the outline. "I am hopeful that as discussions continue in the Senate on the subject of immigration, Members on both sides of the aisle will look to this framework for guidance as they work towards an agreement," he said in a statement.
Doug Andres, a spokesperson for House Speaker Paul Ryan, echoed the sentiment saying: "We're grateful for the president showing leadership on this issue and believe his ideas will help us ultimately reach a balanced solution."
University student and Dreamer Maria Carolina Gomez rallied with other supporters of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals plan last year.(Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press)
Representative Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, an immigration hard-liner, called Trump's plan "generous and humane, while also being responsible" and said he'd work toward its passage. He said that besides protecting DACA recipients, "It also will prevent us from ending up back here in five years by securing the border and putting an end to extended-family chain migration."
But some of Congress' more conservative members seemed unwilling to open the citizenship door for the Dreamers.
'A profound mistake'
"DACA itself didn't have a pathway to citizenship," said Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who battled Trump in 2016 for the GOP presidential nomination. "So I think it would be a profound mistake and not consistent with the promises we made to the voters to enact a pathway to citizenship to DACA recipients or to others who are here illegally."
Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said he supports a more conservative, more sweeping immigration bill proposed by House members, including House Judiciary Committee chair Bob Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, which has won strong support from House conservatives. Speaker Paul Ryan has promised to push for support for that measure.
Republican Jim Jordan, shown on the phone in December, said he supports a more conservative, more sweeping immigration bill.(Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)
The conservative Breitbart News, seen as a barometer of Trump's nationalist base, declared it "Don's Amnesty Bonanza."
Democrats were also raging. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, blasted the plan as "an act of staggering cowardice which attempts to hold the Dreamers hostage to a hateful anti-immigrant scheme."
'Campaign to make America white again'
In a statement Thursday night, Pelosi said the framework was "part of the Trump Administration's unmistakable campaign to make America white again."
Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, urged Republicans to join together with Democrats to reach a bipartisan alternative.
"Dreamers should not be held hostage to President Trump's crusade to tear families apart and waste billions of American tax dollars on an ineffective wall," he said in a statement.
Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham said the White House was using DACA recipients "as bargaining chips for sweeping anti-immigrant policies." (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham, a New Mexico Democrat who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the White House was using DACA recipients "as bargaining chips for sweeping anti-immigrant policies."
Lorella Brayle, with the American Civil Liberties Union, described it as "a xenophobic proposal that would reduce legal immigration to levels not seen since ethnic quotas in the 1920s, eliminate the legal migration channels of African countries, spend $ 25 billion on a damaging border wall, In border patrols and ASI agents. "
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