The future of many young undocumented immigrants who came into the US as children remains unresolved. This is after lawmakers in the Senate failed to pass a bipartisan deal that would create a path towards citizenship for the Dreamers. It was a demoralizing end to proceedings after weeks of intense negotiations. The bipartisan deal would have also provided $25 billion for the wall.
The deal didn’t get the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass. Another proposal by the White House also failed to go through. The proposal would increase the deportation power and terminate the diversity visa program. Lawmakers voted 39-60 against it.
The White House has largely been blamed for the failure. Lawmakers had committed to weeks of negotiations with the hope that a bipartisan deal would be achieved before the end of this week. But now everything is back to square one.
Shortly after the failed vote, Senator John Thune said that lawmakers would go back to the drawing board and try to come up with a solution. Thune also added that there was a need to fix the DACA issue and address the problem at the border.
President Trump had already expressed his dissatisfaction with the bipartisan deal even before it was subjected to a Senate vote. In a recent tweet, the president said that voting for the deal would be the equivalent of voting against law enforcement and voting for open borders. The tweet also called the bipartisan deal a total disaster. The same sentiments were also shared by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
The failed deal was proposed by 16 bipartisan Senators. The deal would have offered 2 million undocumented immigrants a path towards citizenship over the next 12 years. The plan would also provide $25 billion in funding for border security and would cut a small number of green cards each year. The bill would also prevent parents from being sponsored for citizenship by their US citizen children if those children had gained citizenship as a result of the new legislation.
It was seemingly a good deal for both the Democrats and the GOP but the White House was not interested. Despite this failure, the critical issues on the table are yet to be resolved. According to Senator Susan Collins, the failure to pass the legislation was a big disappointment. The Senator also noted that lawmakers must revisit the issue as soon as possible.
But this view is not shared by everyone. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters that he didn’t see the issue being raised again soon. The same sentiments were also backed by Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana who termed the one week long negotiations as a waste of time. The White House has been blamed for failing to show leadership in this negotiation. Nonetheless, the fate of 2 million undocumented immigrants hangs in the balance with only two weeks left until the March deadline.
