Capitol Hill clueless on Dreamers fix
Republican leaders are mum on how they'll address President Donald Trump's challenge to Congress.
By SEUNG MIN KIM, RACHAEL BADE and HEATHER CAYGLE 09/05/2017 04:19 PM EDT Updated 09/05/2017 06:28 PM EDT
President Donald Trump just lobbed a ticking immigration time bomb at Capitol Hill with his decision to leave the fate of 800,000 so-called Dreamers in limbo — and lawmakers have no idea how they’ll defuse it.
House Republican leaders, already scrambling to avoid a government shutdown and a default on the nation’s debt, are privately hoping to push the immigration battle until at least this winter. They, like the White House, want a down payment on Trump’s border wall with Mexico in exchange for codifying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — though House Democrats won’t say whether they’d accept tougher immigration restrictions in order to save it.
Meanwhile, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), longtime immigration-reform advocates, on Tuesday urged Congress to take up a DACA fix this month. But the Senate’s second-ranking Republican quickly dismissed that possibility.
“There’s no way,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said of taking up Dreamer legislation in September. “We will take that up. I’m confident. But there’s no way that it will stand alone.”
Another powerful Republican on immigration issues, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, concurred, saying he doesn’t believe a stand-alone bill granting legal status to Dreamers can pass Congress by itself. Another influential Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, flatly disagreed.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/05/trump-daca-dreamers-congress-response-242336
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Just take the original text of the Exec Order, haul it out onto the floor of Congress and have an up or down vote.
