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Proposal would double number now covered by under DACA

President demands money for wall, tougher enforcement

President Donald Trump will support a path to citizenship for as many as 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought into the U.S. as children, doubling the number of people covered by current protections from deportation, White House officials said Thursday.

As part of any deal, Trump also wants Congress to provide a $25 billion trust fund to pay for a southern border wall and enhanced security at ports of entry as well as improvements along the U.S.-Canada border. He also will seek additional funds for immigration enforcement personnel and immigration judges.

The requests, detailed in what the White House is calling a "legislative framework" that is being delivered to Congress, also include limiting family-based immigration to nuclear families -- spouses and children only -- and ending the visa lottery system put into place more than two decades ago. Three White House officials previewed the framework on the condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.

The White House is asking the Senate to rely on its outline as lawmakers draft a bill to protect recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which Trump announced last year would end in early March. The administration is asking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bring the bill to the floor the week of Feb. 6, just before current government funding runs out at the end of the day Feb. 8.

McConnell and other lawmakers have voiced concerns that they didn't know what kind of immigration bill Trump would sign and were reluctant to publicly signal their support for something that he wouldn't back. The framework is in effect a bottom line for Trump, one official said when asked if it was negotiable.

Ending 'Amnesty'

The president's willingness to sign a bill that includes a pathway to citizenship is a shift from his campaign promise to end all "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants. In a Jan. 9 meeting with lawmakers, the president said he wanted to deal with the issue with "love." The White House, eager to tighten immigration policy, is casting the proposal as a major concession intended to spur DACA recipients' backers to agree to policy changes that they otherwise may not favor.

A White House official said Thursday that the administration anticipates the House will probably pass its own immigration bill that will have to merged with what the Senate approves.

The 1.8 million people who would be eligible for a 10-to-12-year pathway to citizenship include the 690,000 people enrolled in the DACA program, plus a similar number who were eligible for the program but didn't apply, and a small number who would become eligible because of adjustments to the calendar used to determine qualifications, an official said.

The program would set requirements for education, work and good moral character, as defined in the law for seeking U.S. citizenship. Legal status could be revoked in the event of criminal conduct, public safety or national security concerns, fraud, or if the person becomes financially dependent on the government.

DACA Recipients' Parents

The limits on immigration preferences for family members would mean that people could no longer bring parents or other relatives.

Second-ranking Senate Democrat Dick Durbin said earlier this week that the status of DACA recipients' parents must be addressed if family-based immigration such as sponsorship of parents is eliminated.

Trump's proposal is sure to hit resistance from immigration hardliners among Republicans in Congress. Senator Ted Cruz earlier Thursday blasted the idea of giving young undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, and suggested Trump was betraying his voters.

"I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally," the Texas Republican said in the Capitol. "Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us."

Trump engaged in a bitter fight with Cruz for the Republican nomination and won by taking a hardline stance on immigration. During the primaries, Cruz also took a strong stance on immigration and came out firmly against legalizing undocumented immigrants.

In addition to the $25 billion for border security, the White House is seeking efforts to address the flow of the drug fentanyl, something that Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota requested on Thursday.

The end of the visa lottery program would allow the government to reallocate resources toward processing the backlog of family-related and high-skilled visa requests, one official said.
- With assistance by Sahil Kapur, and Laura Litvan

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Trump's Immigration Plans Include Doubling DACA, Path to Citizenship, $25 Billion Wall

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Proposal would double number now covered by under DACA President demands money for wall, tougher enforcement President Donald Trump will support a path to citizenship for as many as 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought into the U.S. as children, doubling the number of people covered by current protections from deportation, White House officials said Thursday.

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"I think DACA recipients should be given a few months to get their affairs in order and return to their home countries," said Ms. Sterry, 58, a former math teacher, referring to the Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that President Trump has ended but which could be revived or replaced in a congressional deal.

And to those who contend that the young immigrants would be marooned in a country they do not remember, Ms. Sterry says: "Parents and children can all go home together."

Less than a quarter of American voters, and in some polls as few as one in 10, share Ms. Sterry's beliefs. But they show how the country's conflicted emotions about undocumented immigrants have stymied legislation for more than a decade, polarizing both parties and most recently leading to the short-lived government shutdown that still did not settle the issue.

Their counterparts on the liberal side are the progressives who are upset with Senate Democrats like Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, for allowing the government to reopen without a guarantee of protection for DACA recipients, known as Dreamers.

On the Republican side, moderates are feeling the pull of hard-line members who want any legalization bill to incorporate significant changes to immigration enforcement, including measures Democrats generally oppose, such as funding for a border wall, a sharp reduction in overall migration, and a shift to merit-based admissions from a family-based system that critics call "chain migration."

President Trump has repeatedly expressed support for legalizing DACA recipients - on Wednesday, he said he was open to granting them a path to citizenship "at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years." But he, too, has felt the pull from people in his administration who objected to the program, which was created by former President Barack Obama in 2012.

In announcing the end of DACA last September, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called it a "unilateral executive amnesty" that had encouraged more illegal immigration and "denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens."

Lars Larson, a syndicated conservative talk-show host based in Portland, Ore., said that 10 to 15 percent of his callers consider DACA recipients lawbreakers and want to give them "nothing at all."

"I point out that philosophically, I agree with them, but practically this needs to be resolved," he said, by granting permission to stay only in exchange for tougher enforcement measures. "Show us that you are bringing something of value."

In interviews, voters who oppose legalization said that they felt the government was being held hostage by sympathizers of the young immigrants. Most were resigned to the possibility that a deal could happen, and said that they could live with it if conservatives came away with significant new immigration controls.

Still, several invoked the law signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, which granted 2.7 million people amnesty while tightening security at the Mexican border and adding strict penalties for employers who hired undocumented workers. Though it promised to reduce illegal immigration, the number of undocumented people has grown since then to an estimated 11 million.

"Granting legal status to Dreamers could potentially cause a domino effect in which other families bring young children, hoping that in time their children will be granted legal status," said Jaclyn Haak, 19, a chemical engineering student at the University of Minnesota.

She acknowledged that many DACA recipients are contributing to the economy, but said that this did not mean that legalizing them was in the country's best interest. She said it could undermine job prospects for Americans, echoing a concern by immigration restrictionist groups.

For Joe Kleve, 21, a senior at St. Mary's University of Minnesota in Winona, the argument that the young immigrants had been brought by their parents held no weight.

What if someone's parents were caught sneaking their whole family into a movie without paying, he asked. "Are they going to just kick the parents out?"

For Mr. Pham, 39, the issue was personal. He, too, arrived in the United States as a toddler, as a legally admitted refugee from Vietnam. But until his family could find American sponsors, they were parked in a refugee camp overseas for more than a year.

"If we can do it the legal way, so can they," said Mr. Pham, an information technology consultant. "We don't have to be creating new programs or giving them preferential treatment."

The voters opposing legalization were often well-informed about some of the details of the immigration debate, such as E-Verify, an electronic worker-verification system that many Republicans want to make mandatory for employers, and the diversity visa lottery, which admits up to 50,000 foreigners a year who must be vetted, but do not need any special skills or family ties to the United States. Proposals to eliminate the lottery have been circulating for years.

At the same time, a few of those interviewed held to common misconceptions about the young immigrants. Some said the immigrants should not be allowed to become legal if they had not tried to do so before DACA was created. But it is almost impossible for people to secure green cards once they have been here illegally for several years.

Others expressed the sentiment that the immigrants' parents should have gotten "in line," though for many foreigners, a legal pathway into the country exists only if they have special skills or relatives in the United States who are citizens.

While these voters remain in the minority, support is not absolute among the majority who want to legalize the young immigrants.

In a CNN poll last week, 84 percent of those surveyed said they supported legal status for Dreamers. But when given a choice between keeping the government open and passing DACA legislation, 56 percent of those polled said it was more important to keep the government open and only 34 percent said a legalization bill was more important, with the rest believing they were equally important or having no opinion. The lack of firm support for the shutdown most likely contributed to Democrats' decision to end it on Monday.

And for those who disdain legalization, that feeling is not always absolute, either. When pressed on whether deportations of the young immigrants should begin - a distinct possibility if no deal is reached - some hedged their opposition.

"They'd be sent back to countries they have no connection to, don't know anything about - it's a very complex situation," said Mr. Cotts, a lawyer, adding that he would like lawmakers to "find a middle ground," perhaps one that prohibits the immigrants from becoming citizens with voting rights.

Mr. Pham suggested letting the immigrants stay, but expelling all those who commit crimes, or even get speeding tickets. "If they're here already, and they are contributing to society, leave them alone," he said. He said he did not want them becoming citizens, but then added he would entertain the thought for those who served in the military.

Ms. Sterry, however, stuck to her stance. "Let's not pretend this is only about the children," she said. Once the young immigrants are legalized, support will mount for legalizing their parents, too, she believed.

When asked about what it felt like to take an unpopular position, Ms. Sterry responded: "I don't care about being popular. Amnesty is wrong."

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dream act (development  relief and education for minors act)

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Most Americans Want Legal Status for 'Dreamers.' These Are Not Among Them.

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"I think DACA recipients should be given a few months to get their affairs in order and return to their home countries," said Ms. Sterry, 58, a former math teacher, referring to the Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that President Trump has ended but which could be revived or replaced in a congressional deal.