IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn
By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The executive director of the U.S.
bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services gives credit to a group of moderate Republicans
in Congress trying to revive interest in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
legislation, or DACA, by their efforts to bring not just one bill, but four, to
the House floor.
“They
are surfacing the issue forcefully and making the House deal with it,”
said William Canny.
Although
he believes the bills could bring about a “path forward,” he said he is
not fully convinced it will happen because of the extent of anti-immigrant sentiment
in Congress and the White House.
A current
proposal, led by Reps. JeffDenham, R- California, and Will Hurd,
R-Texas, along with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, is tapping
into an obscure House rule called “queen of the hill” which would bring
four immigration bills to the House floor for a vote and the bill with the most
votes would pass.
But for
Congress to even consider these multiple bills, there needs to be enough signatures
on a discharge petition. As of May 21, 20 Republicans and 176 Democrats have
signed the petition, which needs signatures from 25 Republicans and all 193
Democrats.
If the “queen
of the hill” procedure gets the go-ahead, there will be debate on each of
the four bills in the course of one day, followed by votes. Another technicality
of this procedure is that discharged bills can only be brought to the House
floor on the second and fourth Monday of each month, when the House is in
session, which narrows the window for this to happen to June 25 and July 23.
In the
meantime, it’s a waiting game, Canny told Catholic News Service.
He said
the U.S. bishops want Congress to help Dreamers find a path to stay in this country
and become citizens “without the fear and stress” they currently live
with daily. He also called it “tragic” that DACA recipients — who
have been here since childhood and have been educated here — are currently left
“to the whims of various courts.”
When President
Trump announced last September that he was terminating DACA, he asked Congress
to pass a permanent legislative solution for DACA participants. His March 5
deadline has passed and now the DACA battle is in the courts with multiple
lawsuits challenging Trump’s decision and seven states filing a lawsuit to try
to end DACA.
The
four DACA bills that could come up for vote are: Securing America’s Future Act, also known as Goodlatte
Bill, written by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia; the DREAM Act; the Uniting and
Securing America Act (USA) Act; and a fourth bill that will be chosen by House
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin.
The Goodlatte
Bill would grant temporary status for DACA recipients with renewable three-year
visas and would include stronger border enforcement and legal immigration
restrictions. The DREAM Act primarily offers a path to citizenship for DACA
recipients and other Dreamers. The USA Act, sponsored by Reps. Denham and Pete
Aguilar, D-California, would grant permanent legal status to qualified Dreamers
and border improvements.
If the
four bills do not come up for House vote, Securing America’s Future Act could
come to a floor vote in mid-June but it is said to have little chance of
passing in its current form.
Canny
said the U.S. bishops have supported the DREAM Act and the USA Act, which have
narrow immigration reform, but they are against the restrictions within the Goodlatte
Bill, and of course they don’t know what Ryan bill would look like.
Three
California bishops placed an ad in a local newspaper May 18 asking House
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, to allow a debate and a vote on
DACA, specifically the USA Act. The ad, in the form of a letter, urged McCarthy
to recognize: “The time to act is now. We have to do what we can to
protect these blameless people who were brought into our country when they were
only small children.”
In late
April, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, Bishop Joe S. Vasquez
of Austin Texas, stressed his support for USA Act, saying he hoped Congress
would “find a humane legislative solution for Dreamers.”
He said
the USA Act would provide qualifying Dreamers with protection from deportation
and give them a path to citizenship while also augmenting border security at
the U.S./Mexico border, increasing the number of immigration judges and Board
of Immigration Appeals staff attorneys.
A May
21 editorial in The Los Angeles Times by Denham, said: “Immigration policy
is the responsibility of Congress, and this may be our last chance for a
legislative fix before DACA recipients’ lives are upended; if we leave DACA in
the courts to languish (or be dismantled) and fail to act in Congress, then program
recipients will be left in limbo or, worse, deported to a ‘home’ they never
knew.”
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Follow
Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim
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