DREAMERS/IMMIGRATION/POLITICS: “A bipartisan group of six senators has reached a deal that would shield ‘Dreamers’ from deportation and make other changes to immigration laws and border security — but the framework has yet to win over the White House and other key players on Capitol Hill.
As of Wednesday [1-10-18] night, multiple sources said the six senators had signed off on an agreement and were waiting for input from the administration on whether President Donald Trump would accept it. So far, they do not have that approval…
The group includes Flake and Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said on Capitol Hill Thursday that the president has not yet signed off on the agreement.
Senate Republican leaders said they, too, are seeking details of the agreement… Details of the agreement are scant. But senators have considered effectively nixing the visa lottery and reallocating those visas to a separate program being terminated by the Trump administration aiding immigrants from countries facing natural disasters or civil strife. Countries affected so far by Trump’s ending of Temporary Protected Status include El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan.
To address conservative concerns about ‘chain migration,’ the senators are proposing that undocumented parents who brought a child to the United States illegally would not be able to access a pathway to citizenship based on being sponsored by their children, Flake said. But the parents of Dreamers would be able to obtain a three-year provisional legal status that could be renewed, according to the senator.”
-Seung Min Kim and Nolan D. McCaskill, “Senators reach preliminary Dreamers deal, but Trump hasn’t signed off,” Politico, Jan. 11, 2018 02:05pm