US Senate to Vote on a Bipartisan Bill for Dreamers
Thu Feb 15, 2018 02:46:pm Politics
6.1K By Michelle Clarke
A bipartisan bill that would protect about 1.8 million Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient and provide substantial funding for border security is about to be voted on by senate on Thursday.
Senate are pulling all stops to meet the March 5 deadline by president Trump to end the Obama administration program but Trump is pushing for a bill by republican senator Chuck Grassley that aligns with his ideology which would sharply reduce the number of legal immigrants as well as scaling back two programs responsible for bringing around 300,000 immigrants to the US yearly.
Despite the difficulty of writing the legislation, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said: "We are closer than we have ever been to passing something in the Senate to help the Dreamers."
Over the past decade, Washington has struggled with immigration reforms which has created division even in this present administration. As the bipartisan plan will be voted on, there's no assurance it will get the required 60 votes need to pass it despite some republicans co-sponsoring it.
Not all democrats will rally behind the bill as it does not cover the parents of the DACA recipients who arrived the country illegally. The Democratic senator from Hawaii, Maize Hirono is among a couple of democrats who wants the parents protected as well.
"But I keep uppermost the need to protect the Dreamers and we're talking about 1.8 million people and that goes a long way to me swallowing the compromise," Hirono told reporters.
After a closed door meeting by democratic senators, they are expressing skepticism over the $25 billion that their compromise would provide Trump, as it may help fund the construction of segments of his promised border wall with Mexico.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons told reporters the legislation "makes some very hard concessions" to Republicans. He said: "That's a big change in position for a key national Republican leader like President Trump," referring to the chance of 1.8 million dreamers eventually becoming citizen as promised by Trump. Coons said he was prepared to support for the measure.
Senate are pulling all stops to meet the March 5 deadline by president Trump to end the Obama administration program but Trump is pushing for a bill by republican senator Chuck Grassley that aligns with his ideology which would sharply reduce the number of legal immigrants as well as scaling back two programs responsible for bringing around 300,000 immigrants to the US yearly.
Despite the difficulty of writing the legislation, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said: "We are closer than we have ever been to passing something in the Senate to help the Dreamers."
Over the past decade, Washington has struggled with immigration reforms which has created division even in this present administration. As the bipartisan plan will be voted on, there's no assurance it will get the required 60 votes need to pass it despite some republicans co-sponsoring it.
Not all democrats will rally behind the bill as it does not cover the parents of the DACA recipients who arrived the country illegally. The Democratic senator from Hawaii, Maize Hirono is among a couple of democrats who wants the parents protected as well.
"But I keep uppermost the need to protect the Dreamers and we're talking about 1.8 million people and that goes a long way to me swallowing the compromise," Hirono told reporters.
After a closed door meeting by democratic senators, they are expressing skepticism over the $25 billion that their compromise would provide Trump, as it may help fund the construction of segments of his promised border wall with Mexico.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons told reporters the legislation "makes some very hard concessions" to Republicans. He said: "That's a big change in position for a key national Republican leader like President Trump," referring to the chance of 1.8 million dreamers eventually becoming citizen as promised by Trump. Coons said he was prepared to support for the measure.
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