Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced late Wednesday that Democrats and Republicans are the closest they have been in more than five months of discussions to striking a bipartisan immigration deal that includes a legislative solution to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“This is one of the hardest issues Congress has had to grapple with in recent years. Each side has had to give a great deal, but we are closer than we have ever been to passing something in the Senate to help the Dreamers,” the New York Democrat said in a statement.
Another prominent Democrat, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, appeared to go further than Schumer Wednesday evening, tweeting that “tonight we are announcing a bipartisan plan to permanently protect Dreamers from deportation.”
BREAKING: After weeks of working together to find a solution, tonight we are announcing a bipartisan plan to permanently protect Dreamers from deportation. This is our best chance to get this important work done, and I hope my colleagues join me in supporting it.
— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) February 15, 2018
However Kaine has yet to share what that plan is.
President Trump warned Democrats on Tuesday that they only have three weeks to work with Republicans on a bipartisan fix to the expiring Obama-era program before the window closes, though the executive action’s reversal has been stalled by two recent federal court decisions.
“Negotiations on DACA have begun. Republicans want to make a deal and Democrats say they want to make a deal. Wouldn’t it be great if we could finally, after so many years, solve the DACA puzzle. This will be our last chance, there will never be another opportunity! March 5th,” Trump tweeted.
Trump has repeatedly used Twitter to encourage Democratic lawmakers to work with Republicans.
Trump has asked for $25 billion to go toward border security, a skills-based visa program to replace the diversity lottery system, and an end to “chain migration,” in return for a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants, including the up to 800,000 DACA recipients.
But Democrats have balked at some of these demands, and the two parties had not appeared to be close to an agreement until Schumer’s statement Wednesday night.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Wednesday evening that the upper chamber would consider four immigration proposals as early as Thursday.
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; 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; and a final amendment by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del., which 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 Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday afternoon it supports Grassley’s legislation and lambasted the McCain-Coons proposal.
