President Trump warned senators Thursday against advancing two bipartisan amendments by Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.C., and another by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., because they do not include everything Trump has asked for in his four-point framework.
“While the Republicans and Democrats in Congress are working hard to come up with a solution to DACA, they should be strongly considering a system of Merit Based Immigration so that we will have the people ready, willing and able to help all of those companies moving into the USA!” Trump tweeted Thursday morning.
While the Republicans and Democrats in Congress are working hard to come up with a solution to DACA, they should be strongly considering a system of Merit Based Immigration so that we will have the people ready, willing and able to help all of those companies moving into the USA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2018
Eight Republicans and eight Democrats in the Senate have co-sponsored the King-Rounds proposal, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he supports it. The amendment has largely become known as the Schumer-Rounds-Collins proposal.
Trump rebuked the plan and said the proposal would be a “total catastrophe,” after saying earlier he would not sign the bill into law.
“Voting for this amendment would be a vote AGAINST law enforcement, and a vote FOR open borders. If Dems are actually serious about DACA, they should support the Grassley bill!” he tweeted Thursday afternoon.
The Schumer-Rounds-Collins immigration bill would be a total catastrophe. @DHSgov says it would be “the end of immigration enforcement in America.” It creates a giant amnesty (including for dangerous criminals), doesn’t build the wall, expands chain migration, keeps the visa…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2018
…lottery, continues deadly catch-and-release, and bars enforcement even for FUTURE illegal immigrants. Voting for this amendment would be a vote AGAINST law enforcement, and a vote FOR open borders. If Dems are actually serious about DACA, they should support the Grassley bill!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2018
The White House Office of the Press Secretary also issued a statement that said it “strongly opposes” this plan.
“This amendment would drastically change our national immigration policy for the worse by weakening border security and undercutting existing immigration law. Specifically, preventing enforcement with respect to people who entered our country illegally before a date that is in the future would produce a flood of new illegal immigration in the coming months,” the statement read.
“If the president were presented with an enrolled bill that includes the amendment, his advisors would recommend that he veto it,” it added.
The King-Rounds proposal would provide the requested $25 billion for border security, give Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients a 10- to 12-year path to citizenship, but bar DACA recipients’ parents from becoming citizens, and prohibit legal permanent residents from sponsoring unmarried adult children.
The amendment no longer includes language to reform the diversity visa lottery into a merit-based system.
It would also block U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting illegal immigrants who have not committed additional crimes beyond entering the country illegally, reversing the current policy with procedures more akin to the Obama administration’s Priority Enforcement Proposal.
An amendment by McCain and Coons would only give $3 billion of the $25 billion in border security funding Trump requested and provide a pathway to citizenship for up to 3 million illegal immigrants.
The proposal would continue the diversity visa lottery, which Trump has called for to be replaced by a merit-based system. The termination of the visa lottery was also part of the bipartisan Gang of Eight deal in 2013.
It would also maintain “chain migration,” which allows those given permanent residency the chance to sponsor immediate and extended family members for visas.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Grassley endorsed the McCain-Coons proposal on Tuesday, but Republican leadership is not convinced it contains enough of Trump’s demands.
The Senate is expected to start voting Thursday on four immigration amendments.
Among those amendments is a White House-aligned four-point framework from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; a plan by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to fight sanctuary city policies; and a bipartisan amendment by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to legalize DACA, slowly pay out border security funding, but not address the visa lottery system or chain migration.
