Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander, Johnny Isakson just endorsed Grassley’s immigration amendment

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., one of the co-sponsors of the Grassley amendment, announced on PBS Newshour that his Georgia colleague and another conservative lawmaker would vote in support of a proposal that is in line with President Trump’s list of immigration policy agenda items in return for giving a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and 1 million other illegal immigrants.

“We’ve had actually tonight even late-coming support for this bill and I have to tell you, Sen. Alexander and Sen. Isakson today, or just tonight, have endorsed this bill and I think it’s a great watershed on what’s to come overnight and tomorrow,” Perdue said.

“These are two very well-thought-of individuals here and I respect both of them immensely, and they were involved in a bipartisan effort trying to reach a solution to this thing and they’ve come back and said ‘this is the plan that they think meets the need,'” he added.

Alexander tweeted his change of heart Wednesday evening and said he is not suddenly opposed to a bipartisan amendment by Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., but would support both pieces of legislation, depending on which the Senate GOP leadership decides to commit to pushing forward.

“My goal is to get a result on both border security and DACA, so I will cosponsor and vote for Senator Grassley’s legislation implementing the president’s proposal,” he said. “I will also cosponsor and vote for the narrower bipartisan proposal offered by Senators Rounds and King because it too solves the DACA problem and provides the $25 billion the president requested to improve border security.”

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 endorsed it.

The Grassley amendment would appropriate $25 billion to go toward border security, create a skills-based visa program to replace the diversity lottery system, and end “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 in which he said lawmakers “are closer than we have ever been to passing something in the Senate to help the Dreamers.”

The King-Rounds proposal would provide the $25 billion for border security, give hundreds of DACA recipients a 10- to 12-year path to citizenship, bar DACA recipients’ parents from becoming citizens, prohibit legal permanent residents from sponsoring unmarried adult children, while trying to deter U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to deport illegal immigrants who have not committed additional crimes beyond entering the country illegally.

That amendment no longer includes language to reform the diversity visa lottery into a merit-based system.