The US Senate on Thursday rejected all four immigration proposals the chamber considered during a week of deliberations dedicated to addressing the legal status of young undocumented immigrants who could be at risk of deportation beginning March 5.
Failing to advance in the chamber were two bipartisan proposals granting young immigrants a path to citizenship and boosting U.S. border security, President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration blueprint, and a measure to crack down on cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Trump’s plan received the fewest votes, just 39 in the 100-member chamber.
Late Thursday, the White House issued a statement saying the Senate Democrats had “filibustered a proposal with an extremely generous path to citizenship because it also contained reforms that secured our border and secured out immigration system.”
The Democrats “chose to filibuster it,” the statement said, “because they are held hostage by the radical left in their party, which opposes any immigration control at all.”
Nearly 800,000 Dreamers benefited from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama administration program that allowed them to work and study in the United States. Trump rescinded the program last year and set a March 5 expiration date.
The Senate voted after a war of words erupted between the White House and a bipartisan group of lawmakers backing compromise legislation that had been thought to have the best chance of advancing.
In a statement, the White House said the measure “would produce a flood of new illegal immigration” and “undermine the safety and security of American families” by “weakening border security and undermining existing immigration laws.”
The legislation, backed by 16 senators of both political parties, would have offered a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, boosted border security funding by $25 billion, and focused immigration enforcement efforts on criminals, threats to national security, and those arriving illegally after the end of June.
Source: US Media Outlets
