Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks to the media following the weekly Republican Senate policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 19, 2020.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, signaled Tuesday (April 27) that Republicans are unlikely to support Biden’s plan to target young children known as “Dreamers” without addressing the surge in immigration at the border. Dreamers,” a stand-alone bill that would target illegal immigrants who entered the country as young children.
“Well, what I can tell you is that everybody is sympathetic to the DACA issue,” McConnell said, according to The Hill, a Washington newspaper. DACA is the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
McConnell added, “But I can’t imagine that we would accept a bill related to immigration, no matter how valuable it is …… instead of insisting on a solution to a very obvious border crisis.”
Republicans see the issue of immigration at the border as a weakness for President Biden and have been trying to point it out during his nearly 100 days in office.
The White House says Biden has struggled to deal with the massive influx of immigrants at the southern border, many of whom are unaccompanied children or teenagers. In March of this year alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested more than 170,000 people at the U.S.-Mexico border, the highest number in 15 years.
McConnell’s comments come as a bipartisan group of senators, led by Senate Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, is holding talks to try to work out a deal for Dreamers and migrant farm workers. Earlier this year, House Democrats passed a piece of legislation targeting both groups.
Durbin told reporters late last week that he believes any deal would need to be about border security in order to get the support of 10 Republican senators to defeat Republican obstructionist proceedings.
He said, “I think we have to have a credible plan for the southern border to get that done.”
McConnell’s advisers, Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, participated in Durbin’s bipartisan talks. Durbin unveiled a piece of legislation late last week that addresses the border wave.
The bill, known as the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, would create regional processing centers; prioritize immigration cases during a surge; create a pilot program; attempt to create a “fairer and more efficient” way to process asylum cases; and would establish a “fairer and more efficient” way to process asylum cases. It would create a pilot program; attempt to create a “fairer and more efficient” way to handle asylum cases; and focus on protecting unaccompanied immigrant children.
It will also increase staff to respond to the influx, including 150 additional immigration judges and 300 asylum officers.
Sinema and Cornyn are expected to meet with Durbin this week and have said they would support passage of the bill as part of a larger package or as stand-alone legislation.
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