Time to Close the Deal on DACA in Immigration

Washington, D.C.– The following is a statement from Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, on the prospects for a DACA deal:

“With Reps. Will Hurd (R-TX) and Pete Aguilar (D-CA) introducing their USA Act compromise with 50 bipartisan co-sponsors late yesterday and news that the Senate bipartisan negotiating group may release their own proposal today, it is clear that many in Congress recognize that time is short to solve the DACA problem.

“Every day, DACA recipients are losing their status, costing them their livelihoods and leaving them vulnerable to deportation. These are hard-working people who were brought to the United States as children and know no other home. They deserve a permanent solution, not the limbo of the last five months.

“Clearly no final agreement has yet been struck in Congress. However, I believe several of the bipartisan approaches currently on the table have the core elements necessary to reach a deal. Given the urgency of the situation, I encourage Congress to examine whether any of these proposals can muster the necessary support in both houses and for the groups working on this issue to keep their discussions going in the meantime.

“BPC’s Roadmap for a DACA Deal, released last year, called for a deal that combined permanent protections for DACA recipients and DREAMers with increased investment in border security technology, infrastructure, and personnel. Most of the proposals on the table follow just this framework.

“BPC believes the scope of a final agreement should remain small. Comprehensive immigration reform cannot and should not be done on the fly. If the Trump administration must have changes to chain migration or the diversity lottery as part of this deal, any changes should be carefully considered, since these issues go beyond the narrow scope and affect many other immigrants besides DREAMers.

“There are deep personal costs being paid every day that Congress fails to reach a solution. The longer this debate drags on, the more those costs increase. It’s time to close the deal on DACA.”

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