A Fight in Congress to Provide Relief to the DREAMers
The end of the year is coming and negotiations in Congress continue over possible relief for DACA recipients who are losing relief.
As The Hill reports, Congressional leaders are jockeying for position in the legislative battle to keep the government open that is expected to dominate their final weeks in session this year. Democrats driven to secure a legislative fix to the end of DACA. Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (NY) and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Cal.) in a statement accepting an invitation to meet at the White House on Thursday said a “bipartisan deal” could be found to pass the “DREAM Act along with tough border security measures.”
In another story, The Hill reports that Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said talks over a legislative fix for a key Obama-era immigration program are at a standstill and criticized Democrats for linking the issue to a government shutdown.
Democrats rejected an offer from a group of GOP senators led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) that paired parts of Cornyn’s border security and interior enforcement bill with a DACA fix that did not include a path to citizenship.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) — who is leading the talks for Senate Democrats — said he made a counteroffer to Republicans that paired up the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act with roughly a dozen provisions from Cornyn’s border security bill. Democrats want a deal linking border security to the DREAM Act, that would give immigrants brought into the country unlawfully as children a path to citizenship. Durbin has said that he is willing to vote to shut down the government without a deal on DACA.
As discussed in this Washington Post article, young undocumented immigrants, often called DREAMers, are attempting to seize the moment and aggressive push for relief.
“This is the moment,” said Cristina Jiménez, executive director and co-founder of United We Dream, the nation’s largest dreamer organization. The group is planning a major mobilization Wednesday in which thousands of members are expected to flock to Washington to lobby Congress. “It’s higher stakes for us in comparison to other fights,” Jiménez said. “The reason why is we’re facing the most aggressive immigration enforcement environment in our lifetime.”
Earlier this week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday urged Congress to protect the dreamers as the business community prepares to push Congress on the issue as well.
KJ