Democrats are growing increasingly worried that the closer Congress gets to the March 5 deadline imposed by President Trump to pass a bill helping the Dreamers, the more leverage the president will gain in the ongoing negotiations.
After killing the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last year, Trump told Congress they had until March 5 to pass a legislative fix for the Dreamers, or young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But with just a month left before the deadline, a deal remains elusive.
Mixed signals from Trump on what he’s willing to accept have complicated talks on an agreement that is expected to provide a pathway to citizenship for the roughly 800,000 DACA recipients in exchange for increased border security funding. Republicans have pushed the parameters of the deal to include significant changes to current immigration law including limits to family-based migration and the diversity visa program. Democrats have balked at the GOP wishlist.
But now, Democrats are afraid Trump will wind down the clock to pressure them into caving on things they never would have otherwise, all to ensure 800,000 Dreamers are not deported. Some Democrats, including staunch immigration advocate Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., have already said they would be willing to give Trump his border wall in exchange for protecting Dreamers.
“It’s scary, it’s scary,” said one House Democrat, who added there’s a growing fear within the caucus that Democrats will give way too much to Trump. “What will we give up on the border?”
“We don’t have any leverage,” another House Democrat remarked, when playing out the various ways a deal could ultimately be struck by negotiators.
As the Senate unveils a large budget deal to increase defense and domestic spending caps, there’s palpable concern among the Democratic ranks that whatever leverage they had over the White House and Republicans in DACA negotiations will be lost. Democrats had originally hoped to pressure Republicans into a deal for Dreamers in exchange for their votes to increase defense spending. But by separating the legislation, Democrats are left with few pressure points.
It’s a “legitimate concern,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. But Schatz said he’s confident Democrats won’t roll over.
“We’re not going to allow draconian permanent changes to the immigration law in exchange for something that they claim to already want,” he said, referring to protecting the Dreamers. “They clearly want to cut the number of legal immigrants in half. That was never contemplated until about three weeks ago, other than by people like [Rep.] Steve King, and we are not seriously contemplating any such compromise.”
As dissension in the ranks grew louder this week, Pelosi took to the floor Wednesday for more than three hours to share the stories of DACA recipients and announce her opposition to a bipartisan spending caps deal without a commitment from House Speaker Paul Ryan to bring immigration bills to the floor for consideration.
“Why should we in the House be treated in such a humiliating way,” Pelosi said. “I just can’t explain to the Dreamers or my colleagues why we should be second-class members of Congress in this House without a commitment from the Speaker that Mitch McConnell gave to the senators — that there would be a vote on the floor to let Congress work its will."
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., admitted that Democrats face a precarious position and have to figure out how far they are willing to go to get relief for Dreamers.
“There’s no question that we may have a tough vote coming on how far we will go to create the necessary feeling in America that the government is not just for military and walls,” Cleaver said.
He added, however, that if Republicans try to push too many changes on the diversity visas, family-based migration, and border security, Democrats could walk away, letting Trump own the deportation of Dreamers.
“At some point, people may say this is on the Donald Trump legacy, let him have it,” Cleaver said. “That will be his historical imprint.”
Sen. Kamala Harris, who emerged as a vocal advocate of DACA recipients in the Senate, said there’s a very real chance Congress reaches March 5 with no solution.
“I do have that fear, yes,” the California Democrat said.
“Each day, 122 of the DACA recipients are losing their status,” Harris said. “Each day in the life of these kids is a very long time. Each day has consequences.”
Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, who represents a district along the U.S.-Mexico border, said he fears Democrats are so deep into working out a deal that they don’t realize it’s not turning out well.
“As a lawyer, when I had a bad case, by the time I was taking it to court I’d convinced myself it was really, really good, Vela said, "and then when the jury came back, you realized, ‘Oh shit, it wasn’t really that great.’ I think there’s a lot of that going on here."
Other Democrats remain bullish, arguing they would under no circumstances give in to all of Trump’s demands.
“The closer we get to March 5, this becomes more of [Trump’s] problem,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. “If he believes that by saving 800,000 Dreamers that he gets to deport 8 million people, he’s going to hit reality that we’re not going to allow that to happen.”
