President Trump issued his first veto threat of the immigration debate on Thursday, with the White House saying the plan being offered by Senate Democratic leaders and a handful of GOP rebels would make border security worse, not better.
In a statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House said the plan would prevent agents from going after illegal immigrants unless they arrive after June 30, 2018.
Analysts have said that creates an incentive for people to flood the border now, hoping to get into the U.S. before the deadline — and it also protects perhaps 10 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S. from serious threat of deportation.
“The administration is committed to finding a permanent, fair, and legal solution for DACA. But this amendment would only compound the problem by encouraging millions of additional minors to be smuggled into the United States,” Ms. Sanders said. “We need to solve the problem, not perpetuate it indefinitely.”
“If the president were presented with an enrolled bill that includes the amendment, his advisors would recommend that he veto it,” Ms. Sanders continued.
The plan, written by Senate Democratic leaders and a few Republican moderates, would grant citizenship rights to nearly 2 million illegal immigrants, in exchange for $25 billion to build Mr. Trump’s border wall. The plan does not include any significant changes to chain migration, nor does it deal with the Diversity Visa Lottery — both conditions Mr. Trump had set for any bill.
But the plan does include striking language that appears to end most immigration law enforcement for anyone already in the U.S., and anyone who can get here over the next four months.
The bill reads: “In carrying out immigration enforcement activities, the secretary shall prioritize available immigration enforcement resources to aliens who … arrived in the United States after June 30, 2018.”
Originally it said Jan. 1, 2018, but that part was struck out and the future date was penned in, suggesting the choice was deliberate.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, who is the chief sponsor of the amendment, defended it on the Senate floor Thursday morning.
“Compromise is compromise. Democrats and Republicans will find provisions they don’t want, wouldn’t include if they had written,” he said. He pointed to the wall funding as something he objected to, but was willing to swallow in exchange for the amnesty.
Mr. Schumer said if Mr. Trump rejects the bill, as he’s indicated he would, he will take the blame for lapse of protections for Dreamers.
“If President Trump rejects another bipartisan compromise there is no question the American people will blame President Trump and no one else,” the New York Democrat said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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