President Trump plans to release a legislative framework for immigration early next week that would establish a path to citizenship for the 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants who were eligible for legal status protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The large-scale amnesty will factor into a broader immigration reform package that would curb chain migration via family reunficiation and end the diversity visa lottery, which supplies green cards at random to applicants from under-represented countries.
Trump’s offer, which top policy adviser Stephen Miller pitched to House Republicans on Thursday, would offer a path to citizenship for far more than the estimated 690,000 current DACA recipients who the White House said one day earlier would be the focus of any agreement. And it would redistribute the visas presently allocated under the lottery system to immigrants whose status is pending in a “backlog” of high-skilled or family-based applicants.
Trump said Wednesday that his administration would consider offering a path to citizenship for undocumented youth in 10 to 12 years in exchange for funding for his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, changes to the lottery program, and new limits on family-based legal immigration.
“If they do a great job, I think it’s a nice thing to have the incentive of, after a period years, being able to become a citizen,” the president said in reference to so-called Dreamers on Wednesday.
Trump said this week that he plans to ask for $25 billion to fund his promised wall, as well as boost tactical infrastructure and surveillance at the Southwest border. The White House had previously floated an $18 billion ask earlier this month. A source familiar with the proposal estimated that the plan would also reduce legal immigration to the U.S. by 25 percent, as only spouses and minor children would remain eligible for family-based visas.
Other provisions of the White House’s proposal would include stricter enforcement for immigrants who overstay their visas, ending catch-and-release programs and hiring more personnel at the Department of Homeland Security — including immigration judges and prosecutors — to crack down further on illegal immigration.
Conservative House members may not be receptive to the concept of paving a pathway to citizenship for such a large group of undocumented immigrants, however.
“The group has never discussed a pathway to citizenship like this,” a House Freedom Caucus source said, adding that more wouldn’t be known until the conservative voting bloc convenes a conference call or meeting.
Another conservative aide balked when asked if the White House’s framework is something the broader GOP conference should embrace.
“It shouldn’t. It would be the most foolish thing Republicans could do,” the aide said. “Legalizing 1.8 million Democrat voters.”
Even so, a pair of Republican immigration who have been heavily involved in talks with the White House seemed to embrace the blueprint late Thursday.
“The president’s framework is generous and humane, while also being responsible,” Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a hawkish voice on the immigration issue, said in a statement. “But it will also prevent us from ending up back here in five years by securing the border and putting an end to extended-family chain migration.”
Georgia Sen. David Perdue suggested the framework was something “that both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate should be eager to support.”
Despite their standing within the GOP as immigration hardliners, Cotton and Perdue expressed a level of support for the president’s immigration proposals that their Republican colleagues may not share. When asked via text message of the statements by Cotton and Perdue, a conservative aide responded by calling them “unreal,” adding a face palm emoji.
White House officials plan to release the full plan on Monday, after Trump returns from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The rollout of the president’s framework comes days after the Senate passed a three-week spending bill to reopen the government, leading Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to rescind his offer to meet Trump’s demand for border wall funding.
Trump had previously rejected a plan put forward by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that offered only nominal funding for the border wall and made few changes to the visa lottery and chain migration policies.
Some Democrats had already started pushing back on the president’s legislative proposal by Thursday evening, arguing against its cuts to legal immigration and accusing the administration of holding undocumented immigrants hostage in exchange for the border wall.
But a GOP campaign operative expressed confidence that Trump could overcome the opposition from the far right and left to strike a deal in the coming weeks that would shield DACA-eligible immigrants from deportation.
“Only Nixon could go to China. I think only Trump can do an immigration deal,” the operative said, noting that Republicans may be “far more likely” to accept an immigration deal with Trump leading the charge.
