DREAMERS/IMMIGRATION/POLITICS: “The Senate’s much-hyped immigration debate is heading toward a megaflop on Thursday [2-15-18]. All three plans slated for votes are shy of the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, likely leaving lawmakers with nothing to show for weeks of talks and Dreamers in limbo.
A bipartisan agreement unveiled Wednesday faces intense skepticism from the left flank of the Democratic caucus and hardening resistance from many Republicans amid a White House campaign to defeat it, including a Thursday veto threat. It would give an estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship while spending $25 billion on border security… But Republicans also acknowledge a GOP amendment that would enshrine President Donald Trump’s four-part immigration framework, including cuts to legal immigration, is also short of 60 votes. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has said that he could support the Trump framework, but no other red-state Democrat has joined him…
The White House’s veto threat against the bipartisan agreement singles out its language directing enforcement officers to, when it comes to the removal of undocumented immigrants who have broken no other laws, prioritize individuals who arrived in the country after June 30, 2018. That policy would ‘produce a flood of new illegal immigration in the coming months,’ the White House warned.”
-Elana Schor and Burgess Everett, “Senate set for face-plant on immigration,” Politico, Feb. 15, 2018 12:37pm