President Donald Trump is open to granting a path to citizenship to roughly 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children as part of immigration talks, a top White House aide reportedly told Republican staffers on Thursday.
But in exchange for helping some undocumented young people, Trump wants to enact policies that would affect countless more individuals, including immigrants in the U.S., people seeking to come here and even Americans who want to sponsor certain family members.
Motel 6 Faces Second Lawsuit Over Cooperating with Immigration Authorities
A civil rights organization is suing Motel 6 for its cooperation with federal immigration authorities by providing guest lists to immigration agents. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona this week.
The suit, filed on behalf of several guests, alleges that Motel 6 employees provided Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with guest lists and accuses the hotel chain of violating state and federal laws that prevent discrimination on the basis of national origin and unreasonable search and seizure.
The complaint identifies eight Latino plaintiffs, all Arizona residents who were detained by ICE agents as a result of Motel 6’s cooperation. At least one of the plaintiffs was subsequently deported.
Senators Starting Over in Search for Immigration Deal
Senators from both parties started a fresh search Wednesday for compromise immigration legislation, but leaders conceded that the effort won’t be easy and were already casting blame should the effort falter.
Around three dozen senators, evenly divided among Republicans and Democrats, planned to meet late Wednesday in what No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas said he hoped would “get people thinking about a framework that might actually work.” Their goal is to produce a bipartisan package to protect from deportation the “Dreamers” and to provide billions to toughen border security.
“We cannot let those who are anti-immigrant, who call giving the Dreamers hope ‘amnesty,’ block us. Because then we will fail, and it will be on the other side of the aisle that made that happen,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
On the House side, the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 150 lawmakers, announced its support for a bill written by Reps. Bob Goodlatte, Raúl Labrador, and Michael McCaul. Their plan would offer to the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients a three-year renewal of legal status, allowing them to continue to live and work in the country with no special path to citizenship. It also contains a host of stringent features that are anathema to Democrats, including reducing legal immigration by 25%, adding border patrol agents and denying certain funding to cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Mayors of 3 Largest U.S. Cities Snub White House Meeting After DOJ Immigration Threat
Mayors of the three largest U.S. cities skipped a previously scheduled meeting at the White House Wednesday after the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter threatening to subpoena jurisdictions across the country for failing to share information with federal authorities related to undocumented immigrants.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, tweeted that he would not be attending the meeting, calling the DOJ’s decision a “racist assault on our immigrant communities.” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, both Democrats, also did not attend the meeting.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, also skipped the meeting, saying that while the entire conference of mayors is usually invited every year, that was not the case this year, and he could not attend the meeting “in good conscience” after the DOJ letter was sent. And among them, other mayors from major U.S. cities across the country also expressed their displeasure at the DOJ’s decision, calling it insulting and saying they were already in compliance with federal immigration law.
Lindsey Graham Gives Update On Immigration Proposal Process
Sen. Lindsey Graham, emerged from a meeting with a bipartisan group of 31 other senators who are working on solving some of the nation’s immigration dilemmas, among them, what to do with undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
Graham gave reporters an update on how the process is going. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said earlier Wednesday that the meeting would be preliminary and would just set the ground rules for coming up with an immigration bill, which they have 14 days to write before funding for the government runs out again. While the group of senators met Wednesday, the House is in recess this week.
Graham, along with Sen. Jeff Flake, said senators will have the chance to introduce all of their ideas to Sens. John Cornyn, and Sen. Dick Durbin. Meanwhile, senators will continue to meet to discuss reforms. “Basically, we all know what’s been debated, what’s possible,” Flake said.
Illegal Immigration Conflict in San Antonio Pits Local Police Against State Laws
A growing debate about fighting illegal immigration in San Antonio has started to pit police against state laws. “No one really secures the border. We have to tighten that up,” says Republican congressional candidate Francisco Canseco.
The spotlight is on local police and how they will enforce the state’s immigration legislation. Canseco says there’s mounting pressure to enforce them. “We must follow the legislature and (what) the state government has passed as its laws,” says Canseco.
Concerns rose after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed the controversial Senate Bill 4, which essentially requires local police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and allows them to question people about their immigration status, even during routine detentions such as traffic stops. But now, the state attorney general’s office is investigating the San Antonio police department after critics said police violated SB 4. A report from the AG’s office points to an incident involving the “release of numerous suspected illegal aliens” on December 23.
