Immigration Talks Stymied By Question Of What To Do About 'Dreamers' Parents
By Alice Ollstein | February 7, 2018 6:59 am
The Senate is slated to begin a floor debate early next week on some kind of an immigration bill, though what exactly will be included in that bill remains a mystery. Lawmakers meeting nearly every day to hammer out a compromise say they have yet to reach consensus on any piece of the puzzle, from how many young immigrants known as Dreamers will be granted a path to citizenship to how much funding will go to building new walls on the U.S.-Mexico border to what changes, if any, will be made to the nation’s legal immigration system. Amid this tangle of issues, several senators have told TPM, one piece has emerged as particularly difficult: the status of Dreamers’ parents.
“That’s where I think most of the disagreement comes from,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told reporters. “If you’re going to have the DACA kids addressed, you’re going to have to find a way to address the parents. And you cannot simply say, ‘Well, since you brought your kids in illegally, this gives you a leg up on all the millions of other people who are in line waiting to get in here who have not violated the law. That’s the issue.”
The nearly 800,000 young immigrants who have been enrolled in President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program have never been able to sponsor any family members for legal status or citizenship. But if DACA holders are allowed to obtain green cards and eventually citizenship as part of a new immigration reform bill, they may in the future be able to do so.
Many Democrats and Republicans alike say they do not want families to be split up, and want to offer the parents some sort of temporary legal status.
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