The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is blasting Donald Trump for sabotaging efforts to protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), writing in a letter that “you have thwarted every bipartisan, narrow agreement that seeks to provide relief to Dreamers and instead have attempted to force a deeply unpopular, anti-immigrant agenda through Congress.” The letter states that Trump has “rejected at least six efforts by Democrats to work with Republican colleagues to reach an agreement on DACA”:
On September 5, 2017, you ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and called on Congress to provide a permanent legislative fix to protect these young people by March 5, 2018. Since then, Democrats and Republicans, in both the House and Senate, have introduced at least 14 pieces of legislation, the majority being bipartisan and many bicameral. Despite the American public’s overwhelming support to protect Dreamers and Congressional efforts to advance DACA legislation, you have outright rejected all bipartisan agreements.
Instead, you have endorsed House and Senate partisan proposals that many Members from your own party oppose. Most recently, we saw the Senate hold a vote on the Grassley proposal, which closely resembled your immigration framework. The Grassley proposal garnered the least support in the Senate: with 60 votes in opposition and only 39 in support.
That White House plan exchanging Dreamer protections for shit outcomes for other undocumented immigrants was originally put forward by the ghoulish Stephen Miller, of course, but was resoundingly rejected as an extreme non-starter. And by refusing to further negotiate in good faith after initially claiming he’d sign “a bill of love,” the CHC continues, “it is clear that the White House and Republicans are prolonging this avoidable crisis”:
You have called on Congress to act to address this issue. However, you have thwarted every bipartisan, narrow agreement that seeks to provide relief to Dreamers and instead have attempted to force a deeply unpopular, anti-immigrant agenda through Congress. Democrats are committed to protecting these young people and have worked in good faith on many bipartisan, bicameral proposals that the White House has rejected.
“We cannot expect Congress to make any headway on protecting Dreamers until the White House and Republicans, who control every branch of government, choose to work with Democrats on a bipartisan DACA fix,” the letter continues. “As your March 5th deadline rapidly approaches and more DACA recipients fall out of status, we strongly urge you to come to the table and work on a narrow solution that protects Dreamers immediately.”
