Prior to meeting with Pres. Trump, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C Car.) and Richard Durbin(D-Ill.), who presented the deal, worked with Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) to gain support for the legislation, claiming that their deal addressed all four of Pres. Trump’s priorities.
Despite Sen Flake’s statement that the “Gang of 6” proposal was the “only game in town,” the group of senators’ plans came to a halt when Pres. Trump shut the bill down.
"The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards. Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly," Trump tweeted.
"I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs. I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund ... Because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards. The Dems will threaten ‘shutdown,’ but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time we need it most. Get smart, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Press Sec. Sarah Huckabee Sanders listed conditions that must be apart of any deal on DACA in a White House Press Briefing Tuesday: securing the border, ending Chain Migration, and eliminating the Visa Lottery. Thursday’s proposed bill is a complete failure with regards to the administration’s priorities.
The ‘gang of 6’ bill includes amnesty for at least 3 million illegals illegally brought to the U.S. as minors before June 2012, and in addition would extend amnesty to the parents who brought them. If passed, this bill would amnesty amnesty up to about 9 million illegal aliens.
Though the bill would require lawful permanent residents (LPRs) to become citizens before they could bring in their adult children to the U.S., it ultimately does nothing to stop Chain Migration.
Instead of eliminating the visa lottery, the proposed bill would keep half the visas for eligible countries, and give the remainder of the visas to people in the U.S. who have been granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS), many of whom obtained TPS while they were residing in the country illegally. After all of those people receive visas, the lottery program would resume as before.
The Bill allots no additional funding for the Wall, and would take the almost $1.6 billion the House has already designated the Wall and use it to fund other border security measures such as repairing existing fencing, eminent domain and environmental impact assessments, and a report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
It would also appropriate $1.1 billion for non-Wall border security, including Border Patrol drug screening, oversight of the Border Patrol, border access roads, and Border Patrol hiring and retention incentives.
