KEY EXCERPTS:
“On policy, this is an immigration proposal based on conservative principles — and one that heeds President Donald Trump’s hardline view of immigrants.”
“The bill is a “compromise” in name only — it’s strategic branding on the part of Republican leadership, which desperately wants to show it can do something on the issue.”
“While the final details of this “compromise” bill are still uncertain, the contours of the proposal are already much further to the right than anything moderate Republicans have discussed in the past.”
“It allocates $25 billion in funds for the southern border wall, funding that Congress has so far only allocated gradually and with restrictions. If the funding for the border wall stops being appropriated, the green cards to DREAMers also stop.”
“The bill also takes a hardline approach toward asylum, removing detention protections for children and allowing them to be detained indefinitely with their parents.”
Vox: House Republicans’ “compromise” immigration push is actually very conservative
How Republicans’ “compromise” immigration bill became a partisan exercise.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s team has been whipping the votes for a “compromise” immigration bill that’s still pretty conservative.
House Republicans are trying to rally support behind a GOP immigration bill that they are calling a “compromise” — one they are expected to vote on by Wednesday.
It’s a bill that in its current form would give immigrants eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program legal status, renewable every six years, and for some, a path to citizenship based on merit; fund the southern border wall; cut legal immigration levels; make it harder to seek asylum; and allow for migrant families to be detained together indefinitely at the border.
What this bill is not is a “compromise.” On policy, this is an immigration proposal based on conservative principles — and one that heeds President Donald Trump’s hardline view of immigrants.
This isn’t a “compromise” that has received any Democratic support or input — and it’s unlikely to. And at the moment, it’s not even the kind of “compromise” that has enough support among Republicans to pass the House. Speaker Paul Ryan’s team delayed a vote on the proposal last week after it became clear that the bill had nowhere close to enough support to pass.
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Needless to say, many of these demands would be nonstarters if they were working with Democrats. The bill is a “compromise” in name only — it’s strategic branding on the part of Republican leadership, which desperately wants to show it can do something on the issue. More importantly, it is a sign of just how much Trump has changed the Republican Party’s immigration debate.
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Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus say the bill is not far enough to the right, but moving the legislation in their direction would lose the support of moderate Republicans — a dynamic we observed during the House’s health care debate last year. Lawmakers took the weekend to negotiate possible provisions like E-Verify and changes to guest-worker visas. While the final details of this “compromise” bill are still uncertain, the contours of the proposal are already much further to the right than anything moderate Republicans have discussed in the past.
Take, for example, the “path to citizenship” offered in this compromise bill, which conservatives argue is a substantial concession and sign of a more liberal Republican Party on immigration. Recipients can apply for a green card after six years of conditional legal status, but they are not guaranteed to receive one — it’s a merit-based system. An analysis by the Libertarian CATO Institute found that only 30 percent of the DACA-eligible population, roughly 420,000 individuals, would benefit from this proposal.
Compare this to a Republican-led bill Curbelo, a moderate Republican now backing this “compromise” bill, proposed earlier this year. His Recognizing America’s Children Act would have given a five-year conditional legal status and then the opportunity to apply for a green card, which would have reached roughly 1.4 million individuals, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute.
But to conservatives, these numbers don’t matter.
“I can tell you the analysis is that the reality is a political reality,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), the chair of the Freedom Caucus said after questioning the validity of the CATO report. “All the people back home are going to see is the 1.8 million people, or more, are eligible for citizenship. So it’s more a political reality.”
The “compromise” bill is conservative on other fronts as well. It allocates $25 billion in funds for the southern border wall, funding that Congress has so far only allocated gradually and with restrictions. If the funding for the border wall stops being appropriated, the green cards to DREAMers also stop.
And — in perhaps the most striking shift in Republican immigration policy under Trump — the bill cuts legal immigration levels, getting rid of the diversity lottery and curbing what the administration calls “chain migration.” Cutting the so-called chain migration eliminates citizens’ ability to sponsor adult children who are married and brothers and sisters, allocating those visas to employment-based visas.
The bill also takes a hardline approach toward asylum, removing detention protections for children and allowing them to be detained indefinitely with their parents.
In other words, it asks moderate Republicans and Democrats to accept a slew of conservative reforms to almost every arm of the immigration system, legal and illegal, in exchange for a partial and less-than-certain path to citizenship for DREAMers. Already, Democrats have balked at both Republican immigration proposals.
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Conservative lawmakers have also taken issue with a provision in the bill that allows citizens to sponsor their parents. Conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation have already called it an “amnesty scheme” — a phrase that’s almost the curse of death for any immigration bill trying to gain conservative support.
Conservatives are galvanized by a president in Trump, who is known to espouse hardline immigration views, claiming migrants are “infesting” and “invading” the country. And they have enough votes in the House Republican conference to tank any bill being pushed on a party-line vote. This is the same dynamic we saw during the health care debate.
The result, so far, has been a bill that’s not a compromise at all.
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Republicans are engaging in a partisan exercise. And so far, they haven’t gotten very far.