That is a no-brainer. Of course, we must settle the fate of the Dreamers. A deal to pass
DACA protection alongside a package of border security measures is
finally within reach. As the immigration meeting at the White House
showed, almost everyone in this body is interested in passing DACA
protections into law. Democrats are interested in effective, practical border security
measures. We want what secures the border the most, not what sounds the
best, not what was a political slogan in a campaign but what actually
protects our border as drugs flow in and other things come across. We
are working as hard as we can to find an agreement both sides can live
with. The only folks who didn't get the memo were some House
Republicans who continue to push hard-line immigration bills that are
outside the scope of the negotiations. I am referring to Representative
Goodlatte's proposal, which is entirely counterproductive and
completely unacceptable. If Speaker Ryan is going to listen to the hard right in the House and
coalesce behind Representative Goodlatte's proposal on DACA, we will
have no deal. Let the American people hear that. If Speaker Ryan is
unable to resist Representative Goodlatte's proposal--he has never been
for Dream to begin with--we will have no deal. If Speaker Ryan bends to the hard-right faction of his caucus--which
is far away from what most Americans think; the hard right doesn't like
Dreamers, and 70 percent of Americans do--and if they ask for
immigration measures outside the scope of our negotiations, then so
will we. Deal with chain migration outside of the scope of Dreamers? Let's deal with the 11 million who need a path to citizenship--a tough
but fair path. We can play that game too. We can go beyond the confines
of this deal, which has been Dreamers and border security, and then the
whole thing won't happen. There are people on my side who aren't going to want to make any
compromises. I know that.
Keywords matched
immigration border security chain migration DACA