House Democrats unveiled a bill to offer citizenship to young undocumented immigrants in a bid to draw a sharp contrast with President Trump.
By David Nakamura and David Nakamura Reporter covering the White House Email Bio Follow Maria Sacchetti Maria Sacchetti Reporter covering immigrant communities and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Email Bio Follow March 12 at 7:21 PM House Democrats signaled confidence Tuesday that fully embracing young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers” will be a winning political issue in 2020 as their party seeks to draw a sharp contrast with President Trump.
For House Democrats, the introduction of the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which would offer the young immigrants green cards, is as much a political statement as it is a legislative initiative, given that the bill, if approved, would face steep odds in the Republican-controlled Senate. After a massive midterm win for House Democrats, “this is an opportunity for us to have a conversation on our terms, in which the Dream Act is not paired with funding for border enforcement,” said Lorella Praeli, who advised Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and now serves as deputy national political director at the American Civil Liberties Union.
“We shouldn’t be giving in on our values just because many Republicans have lost a sense of reality,” Praeli said, “and are trying to use people living with tremendous amounts of uncertainty . . . as bargaining chips for a hard-line agenda they proved they can’t move.” In 2016, Clinton pledged to go further than Obama had on deferred-action measures, while Trump vowed to overturn DACA on his first day in office. Trump’s equivocation for more than seven months before doing so was interpreted as evidence of his trepidation over the political consequences. Polls show widespread public support for providing legal status to the dreamers.
Republicans have accused Democrats of using the fate of the dreamers as a cynical strategy to rally turnout among their liberal base. Last year, the conservative Daily Caller published a leaked memo from the liberal Center for American Progress, co-written by former Clinton adviser Jennifer Palmieri, that implored Democrats to oppose Republican spending bills that did not include provisions to protect dreamers.
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