On Thursday, the US Senate started a series on votes about immigration after a heated exchange between a bipartisan collection of lawmakers and the White House, on a proposal to boost border security while aiding young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as minors to remain in the country legally.
The White House has clarified that, even if the bill passes the Senate, making it to President Trump’s desk, it will be vetoed. A senior administration official told reporters that the bill would be ‘Dead on Arrival’ regardless of whether it makes it through the Senate. The White House earlier slammed the measure as enabling illegal immigration and threatening the security and safety of American families by undermining current immigration laws and weakening border security.
On Wednesday, 16 Senators unveiled legislation to increase funding for border security by $25 billion, focus immigration enforcement on new undocumented immigrants arriving after June 2018 and those who are criminals or who pose a threat to national security, while offering a path to US citizenship to ‘Dreamers’. Maine Republican, Susan Caine, said the bill was the only one with any hope of getting through the Senate. The Department of Homeland Security was less than impressed, decrying it as the end of immigration enforcement in the US.
The bill is not expected to pass, and the Trump administration’s criticisms were shared by many conservative Republicans, who called it ‘de facto amnesty’ and a clarion call for undocumented immigrants to surge into the US before the deadline.