Trump won’t support new plan to save ‘Dreamers’ from deportation
WASHINGTON
The White House signaled on Wednesday that President Donald Trump will not support a new bipartisan plan to protect young undocumented immigrants — so-called “Dreamers” — from being placed back in line for deportation.
A White House official told McClatchy that Trump would not sign a new DREAM Act being crafted by a bipartisan team led by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Another official, legislative affairs director Marc Short, also said the administration will likely oppose the Dream Act as it has in the past.
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It’s enforcement first. Then we can get to all these other things,” said the first White House official, who would not speak publicly because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
Graham and Durbin planned to re-introduce a version of the long-stalled legislation as early as Thursday that would provide an escape hatch for young immigrants who could lose their special protected status because of a court challenge from Texas and nine other states.
Trump’s opposition to the proposal could dash one of the greatest hopes for Congress to help the roughly 800,000 young immigrants who had been protected by Obama’s controversial 2012 deferred action program, known as DACA, that is unlikely to withstand the legal challenge. But the White House official said Trump’s priority is on measures that crack down on illegal immigration as he promised during the campaign.
The president instead favors a pair of already-introduced measures that would cut down on illegal and legal immigration, the official said.
One goes after sanctuary cities, or jurisdictions that refuse to hold immigrants in their jails longer so federal officials can pick them up to be deported. The other is a “merit-based system” proposal would reduce overall legal immigration and redirect visas toward immigrants with special skills.
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