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The so-called "Common Sense" bipartisan group of senators that have been talking immigration have a plan that's already been rejected by Trump and by House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The text of the agreement is expected to be unveiled later Wednesday, multiple senators said as they left a bipartisan meeting aimed at getting a consensus agreement to the floor. The accord would provide $25 billion for border security and a wall, a path to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants and restrictions on those immigrants' parents becoming citizens, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). […]
Even as McConnell attacked Democrats and Schumer laid into Trump for his proposal’s cuts to legal immigration, the group of mostly moderate senators in both parties left a Wednesday meeting signaling they were prepared to release their compromise later in the day.
"I believe our group has come together on an approach," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters.
If that compromise also includes shutting down family reunification for anyone but Dreamers—and note that it would not allow their parents to become citizens—then it's not worth even negotiating. Dreamers have made it clear—they don't want to win protection at the cost of other immigrants losing whatever hope they have for their families. That's a concession too far, one that has already been rejected by Trump, and which House Speaker Paul Ryan will likely refuse to take up.
Ryan is not committing to a vote on any immigration bill if the Freedom Caucus-backed bill doesn't get enough support to pass. His team is whipping it now. Anything the Senate might pass has no guarantee of getting to the House floor if the Freedom Caucus vetos it. That's where we stand now. Ryan is letting the Freedom Caucus dictate everything.
That makes Democrats putting down a marker on immigration that cedes anything to Trump totally counterproductive. It would betray every immigrant and their family for nothing. It's dangerous and it's damaging. They have to be willing to walk away if they don’t get an up-or-down vote on the Dream Act.