Senate Republican leader embraces Trump
immigration plan
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[February 14, 2018]
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate
Republicans on Tuesday turned up the heat on Democrats to accept demands
from President Donald Trump for tougher immigration laws and a wall on
the U.S.-Mexico border as part of legislation to aid young "Dreamer"
immigrants.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, backed legislation
to encompass Trump's "four pillars" of an immigration overhaul, which
include plans to build the wall, end the visa lottery program and impose
curbs on visas for the families of legal immigrants.
"This proposal has my support and during this week of fair debate I
believe it deserves support of every senator who's ready to move beyond
making points and actually making a law," McConnell said in a speech on
the Senate floor.
The Trump "pillar" of immigration that is easiest for Democrats to
accept is protecting some 1.8 million Dreamers who were brought
illegally to the United States as children. Many Democrats are reluctant
to help fund Trump's long-promised wall, which is aimed at keeping out
illegal immigrants but is seen by many lawmakers as too expensive and
inefficient.
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On Tuesday, a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, blocked the Trump
administration from rescinding on March 5 former President Barack
Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which
protected the Dreamers from deportation. The decision was similar to a
ruling last month by a federal judge in San Francisco.
The U.S. Supreme Court is due to consider whether to take up the
administration's appeal of the San Francisco ruling and could announce
as soon as Friday afternoon whether it will hear the case that is being
closely watched by 700,000 DACA participants.
The U.S. Senate began a major immigration debate, its first in nearly
five years, on Monday evening. Republicans held a tough line, at least
for now, in the search for a bipartisan deal.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton, interviewed on Fox News, said Trump's
immigration plan "is not an opening bid for negotiations. It's a best
and final offer."
That ran counter to statements Trump had made in recent days, including
early on Tuesday when he said in a tweet: "Negotiations on DACA have
begun," suggesting he sees room to budge on some issues.
Congress has been unable to pass a comprehensive immigration bill for
more than a decade. In 2013, the Senate voted to grant a pathway to U.S.
citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, but the effort died in
the House of Representatives.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arrives for a news
conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 6, 2018.
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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BROAD CHANGES
Some Republican lawmakers have expressed skepticism the kind of
fundamental changes in U.S. immigration law sought by Trump can pass
the Senate by week's end, despite McConnell's warning of a tight new
deadline when he told reporters: "We'll need to wrap this up this
week."
The administration proposes cracking down on overall levels of legal
immigration and the type of immigrants who would qualify for visas.
Trump wants to aim U.S. immigrant visas at high-skilled workers and
allow in fewer relatives of legal immigrants.
Standing beside a large photograph of Chloe Kim, who at 17 became
the youngest female snowboarder to win an Olympic gold medal,
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said: “Some say there are too many
immigrants.” Kim is “the daughter of an immigrant who came here with
nothing,” he added.
Her father, Kim Jong-jin, is a South Korean immigrant who gave up
his job as an engineer to focus on his daughter's sporting career.
Durbin told reporters he thought early Senate votes on immigration
proposals from both sides could fail to win the 60 votes needed to
clear procedural hurdles.
Senators will be forced to move "toward the center with a moderate
approach," Durbin said.
Democrats have talked of possibly coupling a pathway to citizenship
for Dreamers with additional border security, including the
construction of more border fencing and other high-tech tools to
deter illegal immigrants.
A group that includes several centrist senators was working on a
proposal that would likely include about $25 billion in additional
money for border security, said Democratic Senator Bill Nelson.
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Trump would want to focus that money on construction of a
U.S.-Mexico border wall. Nelson said: “A wall is many things,” and
could include electronic devices, natural boundaries and drones.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Katanga Johnson
and Susan Cornwell in Washington and Dan Levine in San Francisco;
Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter
Cooney)
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