On Thursday, President Trump put his immigration cards on the table with the proposal for a grand compromise.
The main terms are that 1.8 million illegal immigrants could immediately begin a path to legalization and, in most cases, citizenship. At the same time, Trump would secure $25 billion for the border wall he promised during his presidential election campaign, stricter enforcement for visa overstays, and a narrowing of those eligible for naturalization based on family relations.
Republicans nearly all claim now that they want to help the so-called “Dreamers,” Democrats, meanwhile, are ever claiming to oppose the decades long disorderly and dangerous scramble across the southern border that has resulted from insufficient enforcement.
Sen. Joe Manchin Says That Trump’s Immigration Proposal is “A Good Starting Point”
Sen. Joe Manchin said Sunday that President Trump’s recent immigration proposal is a “good starting point” and that he plans to meet soon with senators from both parties to see how much of it can pass.
“The president’s laid out what he wants. That’s a good starting point. Let’s see if it’s something that we can agree on, something we need to adjust and something we can negotiate with,” the West Virginia Democrat said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Mr. Manchin said there was more than $40 billion to secure the United States’ southern border in the 2013 immigration bill passed by the Senate. That bill also provided an eventual pathway to citizenship for some 11 million illegal immigrants in the U. S. “Now, if you want to go big, that’s big,” he said. “You can’t have big on one end of it and then also medium or small on the other end. I think that’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
House Majority Leader Kevin Mccarthy: Trump’s Immigration Plan Has “A Lot of Merit”
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Sunday President Trump’s recently proposed immigration framework has “a lot of merit” but a final solution will require compromises from both sides.
“It’s a sign that shows he’s serious about solving this problem,” Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I think whatever we do is not going to pass with one party or the other,” he said when asked if the plan could pass the House with only Republican votes. If you want to solve this and not be at this in another five or 10 years, you want to do it correctly and I think that bill has a lot of merit to solving the problem,” he said.
Dreamers Reject White House Immigration Framework for Restricting Family-Based Migration
On the heels of a three-day government shutdown over immigration, ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and “This Week” Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz traveled through four states along the U.S.-Mexico border to take the pulse of some people who will be directly impacted by changes in immigration policy.
On Thursday, the White House unveiled a framework for immigration reform that proposes spending $25 billion for a border wall and additional border security. In exchange, it would provide a pathway to citizenship for approximately 1.8 million Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients.
“Democrats stabbed us in the back,” said 35-year-old Allyson Duarte, who attended a Saturday rally in Alamo, Texas, protesting against the proposed border wall. “They had leverage but they caved. They are holding us hostage by paying for the border wall,” Duarte added of the White House proposal. “I am against the border wall and the end of family migration and the end of family reunification.”
Immigrant Children Don’t Have Right to Free Lawyer
Immigrant children are not entitled to attorneys paid for by the government when facing deportation, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The judges rejected a claim by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and immigrant groups that children have a constitutional due process right to a free attorney.
A system already exists to give the children a fair hearing, and requiring the government to provide free attorneys would be an expense that would “strain an already overextended immigration system,” a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.
The plaintiffs said many of the thousands of children the government seeks to deport each year appear before judges without a lawyer because they can’t afford one or find one to take their cases for free. The result is an unfair process that pits children with no ability to navigate complex legal issues against seasoned government attorneys, the groups say.
Ahilan Arulanantham, legal director at the ACLU of Southern California, said the group had not decided its next step. “The statistical evidence, which the court acknowledged, is that children are many, many times more likely to win their cases if they have legal representation,” he said.
NYC Immigration Arrests Spike, As Critics Point to “Trump Effect”
There’s more than a dozen immigration arrests on Staten Island, according to Cesar Vargas, an immigration reform activist who is New York’s first undocumented immigrant to be admitted to the New York State Bar.
The surge has not just hit Staten Island, but across New York City immigration arrests have skyrocketed in fiscal year 2017 in key categories, including total arrests, criminal and non-criminal arrests, according to data obtained from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
From October 2016 to September 2017, there were 2,576 total arrests, including 674 non-criminal busts, a 17% increase from the 245 the previous fiscal year, the stats show. The numbers confirm non-criminal deportation numbers spiked 152%, from 313 in fiscal year 2016 to 791 the following year.
Overall deportation stats nearly doubled from 1,037 in 2016 to 2,006 the following fiscal year.
Iowa Considers Expansive Immigration Enforcement Bill
Iowa has jumped into the national debate over immigration with an expansive enforcement bill that would require local governments to comply with federal immigration agents or risk losing state funds.
The measure is scheduled for at least one vote this week in the Republican-controlled statehouse and it would force law enforcement to hold a jailed person for possible deportation if requested by federal agents. Although, legal experts say holding people longer than normal is unconstitutional.
Supporters say the bill focuses on immigrants in Iowa illegally who are accused of crimes, but the legislation has a wide scope and raises questions about local government control.
Trump Says to Address Trade and Immigration in State of the Union Speech
President Donald Trump said on Monday he will address his proposed immigration overhaul in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday and will seek Democratic support for it.
Speaking to reporters after a swearing-in ceremony for new Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Trump said his immigration overhaul will have to be bipartisan “because the Republicans don’t really have the votes to get it done in any other way.”
Trump also said his speech will cover his efforts to lower trade barriers around the world for American exports. “We have to have reciprocal trade. It’s not a one-way deal anymore,” he said.
