WASHINGTON (CN) — On the ninth anniversary of a selective federal program that grants temporary legal protections to qualifying undocumented immigrants, the Senate turned Tuesday to legislation that would give permanency to so-called DACA recipients.
The American Dream and Promise Act is the latest version of the Dream Act, which Senate Republicans have filibustered five different times to prevent the taking of a vote. This year, Democrats have edged out Republicans for control of the Senate, but a sixth filibuster is all but certain as it takes 60 votes to defeat a filibuster.
“While the Dream Act has languished in the Senate, hundreds of thousands of young people have languished with their futures in doubt,” Illinois Senator Dick Durbin remarked this morning during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs.
Some 640,000 individuals enjoy protections today under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that allows enrollees to go to college or to work in the United States without the threat of deportation. Though blocked for most of the Trump administration, DACA was reinstated by a federal judge last year, permitting new applications from immigrants who entered the United States as children but lack legal documentation to stay. DACA recipients must pass extensive background checks and renew their status every two years.
As noted Tuesday by Senator Alex Padilla, however, “DACA was enacted as a stop-gap measure."
“It was never enough, nor intended to be enough for the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who work, study and have made their lives here in the United States,” the California Democrat continued.
Aside from humanitarian goals, the Center for American Progress has touted financial promise of Congress following through on DACA. It has said the successor bill now up for debate would boost the nation’s economy by $799 billion over the next decade and create 285,400 new jobs over the same period.
Leon Rodriguez, head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, underscored at the hearing that the issue is now one that the agency has attempted to tackle in three presidencies.
Now it is time to get it done, he said. “If we look at history, the bar has always moved," Rodriguez told committee members. "It’s always been the wrong time, the wrong formula. I think we have run out of time.”
But Republicans criticized Democrats at the hearing for ignoring what they say is the real crisis: the growing number of migrants reaching the southern border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered more than 180,000 migrants in May — the largest monthly total since 2000. Fleeing from violence in their home countries and natural disasters, the vast majority of the encounters are single adults, though the number of families and children seeking assistance remains high. About 74% of the individuals encountered have been expelled.
“In his first week in office, Joe Biden halted the construction of the border wall, returned to the failed policy of catch and release, and ripped to shreds the Remain in Mexico international agreement,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz told committee members. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris caused this crisis, and congressional Democrats are perpetuating the crisis by hiding from it.”
Cruz called on Durbin to hold a hearing on the growing number of migrants at the southern border, rather than one about amnesty for those already inside.
“The house is on fire and we are discussing new tires for the tire truck,” said Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. “Does the truck need new tires? Sure. Is it important? Of course. But not when the house is on fire.”
Padilla turned the metaphor against him. “When the house is on fire, let’s not forget the people who are inside the house,” he said.
Republicans have claimed that DACA is a magnet for people to bring their children to the United States illegally — and the proposed American Dream and Promise Act would only act as more of a magnet.
“I think you have to look at the propeller, not the magnet,” Rodriguez said in response to the accusations. “The highest homicide rates on the planet are driving migration. While those conditions exist in the Northern Triangle, we will continue to see people at the border.”
Northern Triangle is a region of Central America consisting of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which saw about 311,000 people flee their crime- and corruption-ravaged countries between 2014 and 2020, according to new modeling from University of Texas at Austin researchers.
Rodriguez said that the fate of DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, needs to be linked to the solution at the border — we cannot focus on just one or the other.
“If you were wondering at the introduction why this measure has been pending for 20 years, now you have some indication why,” Durbin said at the end of the contentious hearing. “There are clearly differences of opinion on immigration policy.”
“I think we can find justice for people who are eligible under Temporary Protected Status and the Dream Act without suggesting that the doors are open and anyone can come to this country without any scrutiny whatsoever.”
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