Immigration projects to test Senate waters
POLITICAL ISSUE: ‘Dreamer’, the legislation of rural workers can lead to a greater revision effort
WASHINGTON (TNS) – Congress has been trying for decades to enact comprehensive immigration legislation, without success, so starting next week, the House will try a different strategy: pass two more modest bills.
Democratic leaders hope that this will help build momentum towards a broader review effort by the White House.
Both bills are easily passed by the House and would help provide legal status for two groups of undocumented immigrants: those brought to the United States by their parents and migrant farm workers.
A bill would provide a path to citizenship for certain immigrants brought to the United States as children – currently protected by the Obama-era Postponed Childhood Action Program, or DACA – and for immigrants with other temporary protections. House Democrats will also introduce legislation that creates a path to the legal status of migrant agricultural workers, while increasing requirements for E-Verify, an electronic system for verifying employees’ work permits, and restructuring the H agricultural visa program. -2A.
Both projects passed the House in 2019 with bipartisan support, but languished in the Republican-controlled Senate.
By bringing these bills to the floor for another vote before the spring break that begins later this month, and sending them to a Senate floor now controlled by Democrats, lawmakers hope to show progress in legislative action on immigration. In the meantime, they continue to garner support for the broad immigration bill promoted by President Joe Biden.
“We are kind of flooding the area and working on the most robust relief we can get,” said Dep. Linda T. Sanchez, D-Calif., Who is leading this project in the House, to the CQ Roll Call.
House Judiciary President Jerrold Nadler, DN.Y., whose committee has jurisdiction over immigration, indicated that lawmakers will resolve the expanding legislation when they return from vacation.
“We need to get involved in some consultations with key members and stakeholders, but I see no reason not to schedule this when we meet in April,” he told CQ Roll Call.
Democrats recognize that the overarching bill is the party’s “vision” on immigration, not a bipartisan product.
However, Democrats will need some Republicans on board to advance any bill in the Senate to overcome an obstruction. Internal political struggles and horse negotiations may still threaten to derail even more stringent legalization measures, as they did in previous years.
“Although we have more Democratic control now than we have in recent years, I still think this is a community or group that is really used as a political pawn, and I really don’t see that changing significantly now,” said Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, professor of immigration right at Cornell Law School, specializing in DACA.
More than a decade has passed since the Senate last had a clean “Dreamer” bill taken to the floor, and of the three Republicans who voted to advance the final version, only one remains in office: Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski .
Of the 14 Senate Republicans who voted in the last attempt at comprehensive immigration reform in 2013, five are still in office: Murkowski, Susan Collins of Maine, John Hoeven of North Dakota and the remaining members of the “Gang of Eight” Lindsey Graham from South Carolina and Marco Rubio from Florida.
The shift in political dynamics after four years of bombastic anti-immigrant rhetoric under former President Donald Trump may dissuade some Republicans from voting for what could be perceived as an “amnesty” bill.
Greg Chen, director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, noted a lack of moderates between the Republican party with the loss of senators such as Arizona’s Jeff Flake, who left in 2019, and John McCain, who passed away in 2018.
“This knowledge base and experience is very necessary to be able to show leadership and bring in other members,” said Chen.
Some Republicans have already indicated support for the measures.
Graham introduced bipartisan legislation with Judiciary President Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., Which reflects the House’s plan to protect immigrants who came to the United States as children, often called Dreamers.
Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, has also publicly expressed his support for the Dreamers, despite having voted against legislation to protect them in the past.
He said he supported a path to legalizing Dreamers while campaigning in Texas last year. At the Senate floor last summer, he said he was “willing to work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, who is interested in solving the problem.”
His spokesman referred to these observations when asked if Cornyn would support the version of any of the chambers of the DACA legislation.
Graham said he does not expect his own bill to be passed as an independent measure.
When he reintroduced the bill last month, Graham called the bill a “starting point for finding bipartisan advances providing relief to Dreamers and also fixing a broken immigration system”.
Kevin Bishop, Graham’s communications director, told CQ Roll Call that the senator’s views have not changed – but he also pointed out that a previous attempt to address Dreamer protections failed after Democrats refused to provide $ 25 billion in funding. the border wall in return.
“Democrats rejected that. The real question is: what are they prepared to do? ”Bishop said by e-mail.
Other Republicans agreed that Democrats would need to be open to negotiation.
Senator John Hoeven, RN.D., who voted in favor of the 2013 immigration bill, is unlikely to support an immigration bill that fails to increase border security.
“Senator Hoeven’s top priority in immigration has always been to protect the border first,” said his spokesman. “He believes that any reform proposal must include strong border security, which includes barriers, personnel and technology, and also that we need to move to a merit-based immigration system.”
Still, some political analysts say that despite years of unsuccessful attempts to pass a legalization measure, this year may be different because of the “overwhelming majority” of public support for immigration change, Chen said.
Congressional lawmakers “will feel the weight of that pressure,” he added.
The rural workers’ bill – which won nearly three dozen Republican votes when it passed the House in 2019 – could gain traction with Senate Republicans in rural areas.
Meanwhile, Democratic congressmen are facing increasing pressure from immigrant advocates to pass a legalization measure.
“With a Senate led by Democrats and a White House led by Democrats, our theme is ‘without excuse’. Democrats now have to comply, ”said Sanaa Abrar, director of defense for United We Dream.
The ongoing disputes over the legality of the DACA program, which provides temporary protection to the Dreamer population, have also increased the urgency of the moment. A federal judge in Texas is considering taking down the DACA program in a state lawsuit and is expected to issue a decision any day.
Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican Legal and Educational Defense Fund, which is defending DACA in this case, said that a court decision against DACA “would create urgency”, but expressed skepticism that it would increase Congressional support for program.
“If you don’t get enough bipartisan support for the merits of this issue … I don’t think a court decision is going to get you there,” he said.
Lindsey McPherson of CQ Roll Call contributed to this report.