But why not compromise on DACA to get the border wall funded? I've never understood what the big bugaboo is with the "dreamers". They didn't violate the law in coming here. Obama's program was fairly robust is linking normalization to good behavior, and never offered a pathway to citizenship or normalization for their parents. Why not compromise to get billions to improve border security? Isn't that the bigger problem? You give some, you get some.
Just to clarify something at the outset:
I'm pretty sure that the legislation they tried to pass during the Obama Administration did not include anything barring Dreamers from becoming citizens. In fact, his proposal didn't even limit the pathway to citizenship just to Dreamers:
Earned Citizenship: It is just not practical to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants living within our borders. The President’s proposal provides undocumented immigrants a legal way to earn citizenship that will encourage them to come out of the shadows so they can pay their taxes and play by the same rules as everyone else. Immigrants living here illegally must be held responsible for their actions by passing national security and criminal background checks, paying taxes and a penalty, going to the back of the line, and learning English before they can earn their citizenship. There will be no uncertainty about their ability to become U.S. citizens if they meet these eligibility criteria.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/01/29/read-president-obamas-immigration-proposal/?utm_term=.70f5b489b21bIn fact, This was the exact issue on which Ted Cruz was (unfairly) slammed for proposing his amendment. His amendment would have supported the bill except removed the pathway to citizenship, and the Dems killed it for that very reason. Citizenship for those here illegally is a core part of what the Democrats want. Here's what ted said at the time:
On May 31, 2013, in an address at Princeton University alongside his old professor Robert P. George, Cruz said he became convinced that the main objective of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and others was to achieve a bill that included citizenship, and that Democrats were willing to torpedo the bill if citizenship was off the table.
“And what I believe is happening is that citizenship provision is designed, and the White House knows it’s designed, to be a poison pill in the House to torpedo the bill,†Cruz said, “because then they want to campaign in 2014 and 2016, and say, ‘See those Republicans? They killed immigration reform.’…â€https://www.factcheck.org/2015/12/did-cruz-support-legalization/Also, I don't think that chain migration is an ancillary issue. It is actually critical, because it enables people who came here illegally to become the wedge to bring others here legally. I think that's wrong. I'm willing to let Dreamers stay without citizenship in exchange for a wall/border security. That's my compromise. I'm unwilling to do a compromise that includes a wall, but then blasts gigantic holes in it via chain migration, which lets in more people with the right to become citizenship. Nobody who broke the law to come here should be eligible for citizenship. Ever.
Staying here with legal status is an issue I'm willing to discuss.
"Chain migration" -- if permitted at all -- should be limited only to those who
immigrated to this country legally. It should not be permitted for those granted asylum based on their individual circumstances, and it should not be permitted for those who were in this country illegally.
I'd rather kill a deal than permit that.
