Last night during his Fox News town hall Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said that they are not planning on adding any DACA legislation to the upcoming omnibus spending bill. Speaker Ryan emphasized that they would do that “separately” from other major legislation.
On Thursday, a group of 14 House Republicans held a news conference urging Speaker Ryan to pass an amnesty for DACA recipients. The group wants immediate action instead of waiting closer to the March deadline set by Pres. Trump.
The deadline to renew the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the countries of Nicaragua and Honduras was on Monday. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke decided to end TPS for Nicaraguans but refused to make a judgement on Honduras, which means they automatically receive a six-month extension.
Pres. Trump met with several Republican Senators today and told them not to add any DACA legislation to the must pass spending bill this year. Some Democrats have said they would be willing to face a government shutdown to include amnesty for Dreamers in the omnibus spending bill.
Pres. Trump said today that he wants to end the visa lottery and chain migration. He said he would immediately ask Congress to start the process to end the visa lottery program.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on several topics including immigration. Sessions defended the DOJ’s ability to limit federal grants to sanctuary cities and said that DACA recipients should not be given amnesty in exchange for just border security.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) introduced the Agricultural Guestworker Act or AG Act this week, which would replace the existing, H-2A temporary guest-worker visa program with a new H-2C temporary guest-worker visa. The H-2C visa would expand the types of jobs that foreign workers could perform under the visa, adding both dairy workers and meat and seafood processors to the program.
After reaching a 17- year low in April border apprehensions have made a 60% increase over the summer, in opposition to historic trends that usually see a reduction in the late summer months. This increase comes as talks about granting amnesty for Dreamers has made national headlines.
According to the Pew Research Center’s analysis of USCIS’ latest report, 71% of those who have received the DACA amnesty are 21 years of age or older. This means that most of the “Dreamers” are adults who are currently competing with American workers for jobs.
Republican Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.), James Lankford (Okla.), and Orrin Hatch (Utah) introduced the Succeed Act, which would grant amnesty to millions of young illegal aliens. While the Senators claim the bill addresses Pres. Trump's concern with chain migration, it would only prevent the amnestied illegal aliens from sponsoring family members while they hold conditional legal permanent residence.