Congress is about to pass what could be their final major piece of legislation for the year and it doesn’t include any fix for young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
One shutdown, dozens of meetings, countless tweets, and multiple protests later, and Congress has yet to provide a pathway to citizenship for recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program.
President Trump moved to kill the program last year and told Congress to fix it, but has since rejected multiple proposals offered. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in February he’d bring forward a bill the president would sign, but with a massive omnibus spending bill all but ready to reach Trump’s desk, Democrats aren’t holding their breath.
In the days leading up to the omnibus deal, Trump re-engaged on “Dreamers,” asking for $25 billion for his wall but offering only a three-year extension for current DACA holders. Democrats refused and countered with $25 billion for the wall in exchange for permanent status for the larger population of 1.8 million of DACA-eligible Dreamers. Trump shot it down.
Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y. said he doesn’t see any upcoming vehicle that DACA relief could be tied to in order to guarantee passage.
“I made a commitment to my constituency that I would fight for the Dreamers,” said Crowley, chair of the Democratic Caucus. “This may be the last vehicle on which we can do it this year.”
The House passed the omnibus spending deal Thursday afternoon. The Senate could vote on it as early as Thursday evening.
In Washington, if critical but controversial bills aren’t attached to must-pass legislation like ones funding the government it’s unlikely that they’ll be passed at all. Lawmakers are expected to spend the rest of the year doing little, focusing more on the midterms than legislating.
The March 5, deadline imposed by Trump to end the program has come and gone, effectively neutralized by recent court decisions. In February, the Supreme Court decided to not take up a district court injunction that required the administration to continue DACA.
“A judge could change his or her mind immediately and these kids are put right back in danger,” said Rep. Juan Vargas D-Calif.
Or the Department of Homeland Security could move to terminate the program if it follows a more robust procedure that fixes the defects found by the district courts.
It’s unclear exactly how many DACA recipients are currently losing their status but immigration advocates estimate it’s more than 122 per day because of the gap in time between the program’s termination and intervention by the courts directling the administration to authorize renewals.
Congress is “gambling” with the Dreamers, said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.
Unlike some of his Democratic colleagues, Grijalva wouldn’t blame Democratic leadership for the current predicament, saying Democrats should be united in cornering Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
“It’s very important for us to know who our target is and my target is Ryan and McConnell; they can call this stuff up,” Grijalva said. “One can only conclude that [they’re] either placating Trump or waiting to use the playbook of immigration in the midterms.”
The few options remaining include urging the House Republicans who have come out in favor of a bipartisan DACA proposal to pressure GOP leaders, said Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus whipped lawmakers Wednesday night ahead of the procedural vote to advance the omnibus. Lujan Grisham, head of the caucus, said the conversations she’s GOP leaders have been “disingenuious” with her in multiple conversations.
“Make no mistake they got more money to do more mass deportations, they got money to build a wall,” she said of the $1.6 billion for border security in the omnibus. “I’m disgusted by the whole thing.”
Lujan Grisham said she plans to push her colleagues across the aisle to get more GOP signatures for a discharge petition that would enable them to force a vote on a DACA fix and “jam” Ryan.
“That’s they’re last resort,” Lujan Grisham said of the Republicans who’ve aligned themselves with the CHC. “The only way we get Ryan to do what we need to do is we have to jam him and I think more and more [Republicans] are getting ready to do that.”
