CHC Holds Trump Responsible for Sabotaging All Bipartisan DACA Solutions
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February 28, 2018
White House and Republicans are Prolonging Avoidable Crisis
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) leadership sent a letter to President Donald J. Trump nearly six months after he terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and called on Congress to provide a permanent legislative fix for Dreamers. With five days left before Trump's March 5th DACA deadline, the letter lists the numerous bipartisan efforts that he has rejected and calls for a narrow, targeted solution.
"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," the Members wrote.
The Members continued: "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 was signed by: Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Caucus Chair; Rep. Joaquin Castro, Caucus First Vice Chair; Rep. Ruben Gallego, Caucus Second Vice Chair; Rep. Pete Aguilar, Caucus Whip; and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, Caucus Freshman Representative.
A copy of the letter can be found here.
TEXT OF LETTER
February 28, 2018
President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Trump:
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.
As you call on Democrats to provide relief to Dreamers, it is important to note that you have rejected at least six efforts by Democrats to work with Republican colleagues to reach an agreement on DACA:
- On July 26, 2017, the bipartisan Dream Act was introduced by Democratic Representative Roybal-Allard and Republican Representative Ros-Lehtinen. The bill currently has 200 cosponsors including five Republicans. This bipartisan bill would provide protections to current DACA recipients and DACA-eligible individuals, a policy nearly 90 percent of the American public agrees we should do. You have stated you do not support this measure because it does not include border security;
- On January 11, 2018, six bipartisan Senators presented an outline of a deal that would protect Dreamers, included billions of dollars for border planning, construction and technology, and several items that Republican Senators have called for, including changes to the Diversity visa and family-based immigration. You immediately dismissed this plan when Senators Durbin and Graham presented the plan to you in the White House;
- On January 16, 2018, Republican Congressman Will Hurd and Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar introduced the Uniting and Securing America Act (USA). This bill incorporates protections for DACA recipients and DACA-eligible young people. In addition to these protections, Congressmen Hurd and Aguilar, both representing states with significant regions of the Southern border, included border language that would achieve operational control of the border using technology, physical barriers, including fencing and manpower. Though this bill contains both a fix for Dreamers and border security, the White House stated it would not support this bipartisan, bicameral bill either;
- On January 19, 2018, you held a meeting with Senator Schumer where he presented you with a deal that included several billions of dollars in wall funding and protections for DACA-eligible young people. You also dismissed this offer and the three-day government shutdown followed; and
- Most recently, on February 15th, Senator McConnell brought four Senate amendments to the floor for a vote before the March 5th deadline. Two of the amendments had bipartisan support and one of the measures, the Rounds-King amendment, was brokered by Republican Senator Susan Collins and a bipartisan group of Senators that formed the Common Sense Coalition. Instead of using your leadership to support this bipartisan Senate agreement and ensure it reach the 60 votes necessary to pass, the White House and DHS attacked the bipartisan McCain-Coons and Rounds-King amendments. As a result, none of these measures were able to reach the 60-vote threshold.
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. 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.
Sincerely,
Michelle Lujan Grisham
CHC Chairwoman
Joaquin Castro
CHC First Vice Chair
Ruben Gallego
CHC Second Vice Chair
Pete Aguilar
CHC Whip
Adriano Espaillat
CHC Freshman Representative
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The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), founded in December 1976, is organized as a Congressional Member organization, governed under the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives. The CHC is dedicated to voicing and advancing, through the legislative process, issues affecting Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.