Republican Senators Unveil Their New Version Of The Dreamers Bill

Just as you would expect from the GOP, the new Senate proposal for their version of the ‘Dreamers’ bill’, will have several provisions that hinder the young undocumented immigrants from settling comfortably in the country.

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, two states with relatively low Hispanic and Latino populations, are the chief Republican writers of this new bill. The Senators made their efforts to make this bill more GOP friendly, in a stunt that they hope will get their more conservative peers to support it. It surely is a more conservative view of the fate of young undocumented immigrants, than Senator Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham had redacted in their Bipartisan Dream Act.

The Republican Senators are already receiving criticism from both sides because of their bill, on one side they have the liberal immigration advocates, that are claiming the bill doesn’t get them to citizenship soon enough, and on the other side you have the conservative hardliners who can’t even fathom the idea of these children receiving a shot at citizenship in the first place. Although according to Ser. Lankford, President Donald Trump is ‘very supportive’ of the concept of this new GOP bill

Tills and Lankford are hopeful that their ‘Succeed Act’ as they call it, will win the conservative support in time for Congress to fix the White House’s decision, to start revoking work permits and deportation protections as early as next year for the 800,000 Dreamers.

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who has sponsored the bill, has released some of its details to the news media. On this bill, there is a strong focus, on what Donald Trump calls ‘chain migration’, a term used by the President to describe green card holders, who sponsor foreign relatives to come into the country. Under the current law, green card holders are allowed to petition close relatives, such as spouse and children for permanent residency, this practice, of course, doesn’t sit well with the current Commander-In-Chief.

The Senators have addressed Mr. Trump’s demand, and according to the people familiar with the legislation, the new bill would bar green card holding Dreamers to petition family members.

“The people are who moving through the green card process are people who’ve gone through the process legally over a period of time. This is a special group of people that we want to provide a solution to, but not necessarily let them expedite the potential admission of other persons.”

Senator Tillis on provision that targets chain migration

Another provision put in place is the 15-year path to citizenship, where in order to be illegible under the ‘Succeed Act’, immigrants must have lived in the United States since June 15, 2015, and before the age of 16. They would be required to have a high school diploma and pass a thorough criminal background check, submit biometric data to Homeland Security and pay off any back taxes. After this, the Dreamer will obtain a ‘conditional permanent residence’ status that they will have to maintain for 10 years before applying for a formal green card, that is, only if they have a college degree, served in the military for at least 3 years or have been constantly employed.

Frank Sharry of America’s voice, has argued that the proposed provisions set by the Republican Senators are “disturbing”, and the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform has stated that the Senators would be better off focusing on “decades of broken immigration enforcement promises made to the American people”.