President Donald Trump and a group
of GOP senators quickly rejected a DACA amnesty deal pushed by Sen. Lindsey
Graham on Thursday afternoon – but left the door open to future negotiations.
They will now wait until after the
Supreme Court decides on the legality of Barack Obama’s work permit giveaway to
800,000 younger illegals, says multiple media reports.
NumbersUSA adds (via subscriber newsletter):
Other Senators reported at the
White House meeting represented some mixed immigration positions: Ted Cruz of
Texas, Kevin Cramer of South Dakota, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Martha McSally of
Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and David Perdue of
Georgia.
Sens. Tillis and McSally would be
open to joining Graham in supporting a mass amnesty, particularly if it came
with the right tradeoffs. Sen. Tillis, along with Sen. Johnson, is looking for
an expansion of guest worker programs. Sen. McSally would likely be willing to
trade amnesty for increased border security in Arizona.
Thankfully, Sens. Cotton and Cruz
were also in attendance. Both Senators have pushed back against the idea of
granting a permanent amnesty to DACA recipients. Coincidently, Sen. Cotton
slammed the Trump Administration's decision to increase
the number of low-skilled H-2B visas for FY 2020 via Twitter while the
meeting was taking place.
For now, the issue is still up in the air, and the NumbersUSA Action
Alert to fax or call Senators is probably better implemented closer to the
Supreme Court’s decision, expected in June.
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