President Trump has described his proposal for ending the government shutdown as a trade, but details in the bill that the Senate will vote on today have immigration advocates and Democrats calling the offer partisan, malevolent and “feigned” attempt at compromise.
“It’s a sham,” Ur Jaddou, director of America’s Voice DHS Watch program, told NBC News Wednesday. “It’s shocking to see they would call this a serious compromise. They didn’t even try.”
While the proposal got the White House’s endorsement yesterday morning, the administration has yet to address the parts of the legislation that are drawing loud criticism. Children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador who arrive at the border and request asylum would be sent back home without exception.
But just as troublesome to advocates and Democrats are the wholesale changes the administration wants to make to DACA and TPS. An analysis by the Cato Institute found that the proposed legislation would require immigrants who have DACA and are in good standing to reapply rather than simply renew their status.
Under the plan, when they reapply, they would have to meet a higher burden to prove their eligibility. The proposal would exclude from eligibility for DACA anyone not in the program now and require those who are not students to have an income that is at least 125 percent of poverty level.
Although DACA recipients are ineligible for almost all federal benefits, the legislation would ban anyone at least 5 percent dependent on state or local aid from eligibility for DACA. This could affect immigrants in states like California and New York that offer benefits such as medical services and in-state college tuition, Cato found.
In addition to paying the $495 application fee, DACA recipients would also have to pay an additional “security fee” of $500, an assessment that the Cato Institute pegged as a fine. Application fees for TPS would go from $50 to $500 in addition to the $495 for a work permit.
Immigrants in both groups also would have to pay back the government for any legally obtained tax credits they’ve received. The proposal would also ban all people without legal permission to be in the country from obtaining TPS in the future.
Recent Comments