US Senate rejects four bills which offered legal protection to over 1 million ‘undocumented’ immigrants
Washington, February 16: The US Senate on Thursday rejected four bills including a Republican measure backed by President Trump and a competing bipartisan proposal to protect “Dreamer” immigrants. Notably, the immigration bills would have offered legal protections to more than 1 million undocumented immigrants who came to the USA as children.
The Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to move forward on four separate proposals that would have given legal protections to more than 1 million undocumented immigrants who came to the USA as children. However, the Senate’s failure to reach agreement on the volatile issue of immigration puts those immigrants, known as DREAMers, at risk of deportation starting March 5 of this year.
Both Republicans and Democrats put the blame on each other for the rejection of bills. In the Senate, several lawmakers said they would try to regroup and come up with a better compromise that could win the 60 votes needed to advance.
The bipartisan bill which was unveiled on Wednesday by a group of 16 senators, would have provided a pathway to citizenship for more than 2 million DREAMers. The bill would have allocated $25 billion to strengthen security at the southern border with Mexico, limited family-based immigration and barred the parents of DREAMers from becoming citizens.
The Senate also rejected two narrower bills- one to create a path to citizenship for the DREAMers and improve border security and a second to withhold funding from “sanctuary cities” that limit police officers' cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Importantly, President Trump rescinded the program last year and set a March 5 expiration date. However, Federal Judges have blocked that from taking effect amid litigation.
BACKGROUND:
Nearly 8 lakh Dreamers benefited from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama administration program that allowed them to work and study in the United States.