As part of the plan, officials want to shore up ports of entry to ensure all vehicles and people are screened and to create a self-sustaining fund, paid for with increased fees, to modernise ports of entry.
The plan also calls for building border wall in targeted locations and continues to push for an overhaul to the US asylum system, with the goal of processing fewer applications and removing people who don’t qualify faster.
While the officials insisted their effort was not a “political” plan, they nonetheless framed it as one they hoped Republicans would unite behind, making clear to voters what the party is “for.”
“I don’t think it’s designed to get Democratic support as much as it is to unify the Republican Party around border security, a negotiating position,” said South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the White House.
Indeed, the plan drew immediate criticism from Democrats as well as immigration activists, who remain deeply sceptical of Trump after past negotiation failures.
Democrats and some Republicans tried crafting a compromise with Trump last year that would have helped young Dreamer immigrants and added money for border security. But those talks collapsed over White House demands to curb legal immigration and a dramatic Senate showdown in which lawmakers rejected three rival proposals that aligned with the “four pillars” immigration plan Trump unveiled that year.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer criticised the White House for failing to engage in talks with Democrats over the latest proposal.
“Don’t come up with a plan that Stephen Miller rubber stamps and say, ‘Now, pass it.’ It’s not going to happen,” Schumer said, referring to Trump’s hard-line policy adviser.
Lisa Koop, director of legal services at the National Immigrant Justice Center, also criticised the various planks of the proposal, including its failure to address those brought to the US illegally as children who are currently protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA, which Trump has tried to end.
“A plan that forces families apart, limits access to asylum and other humanitarian relief, and doesn’t contemplate a path to citizenship for DACA recipients and other undocumented community members is clearly a political stunt intended to posture rather than problem-solve,” she said.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower immigration rates, applauded a “very positive effort” on legal immigration, but said it was “undermined by the embrace of the current very high level of immigration.”
Republicans on the Hill, too, voiced scepticism, even as administration officials insisted the plan had been embraced by those who briefed on it. A PowerPoint presentation shared with reporters on Wednesday referred to the plan as “The Republican Proposal,” even though many GOP members had yet to see it.
Graham, who rolled out his own proposal on Wednesday to address the recent flood of migrants seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border, said he had advised Trump to try to cut a new deal with Democrats and believed Trump was open to that.
“I am urging the president to lead us to a solution,” he said.
from Trendy Newses http://bit.ly/2JobZXq
0 Comments