Lawmakers grapple with border policy

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks about immigration at Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, Ind., on Thursday.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks about immigration at Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, Ind., on Thursday.

House Republicans unveiled a "discussion draft" of a sweeping immigration bill that includes a path to citizenship for young people living in the U.S. illegally, $25 billion in border security -- including advance funds for President Donald Trump's wall with Mexico -- and a provision aimed at addressing the crisis of family separations at the border.

Presented to lawmakers Thursday, the measure sticks to Trump's immigration priorities while trying to join the party's warring conservative and moderate factions on an issue that has divided the GOP for years. Passage is far from certain.

Speaker Paul Ryan wants to hold a vote as soon as next week to put the issue to rest before the midterm election. He called it a "very good compromise."

"Our members felt very, very passionate about having votes on policies they care about, and that is what we are doing," he said earlier Thursday. "So we're bringing legislation that's been carefully crafted and negotiated to the floor. We won't guarantee passage."

The 293-page bill represents the kind of ambitious overhaul of the immigration system Republicans have long considered but have been unable to turn into law. It shifts away from the nation's longtime preference for family immigration to a new system that prioritizes entry based on merits and skills.

Under the proposal, some 1.8 million young people who have been living in the U.S. illegally since childhood, including 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, could apply for legal status, which would be valid for six years and renewable "indefinitely."

To beef up the border, the proposal provides the $25 billion the White House wants for security, including technology, roadways and money for the border wall. It authorizes National Guard troops at the U.S.-Mexico border. It also calls for the deployment of a biometric entry-exit system for all entry ports that has long been under debate.

To address widespread concern over the sharp rise of families being separated at the border, the measure proposes keeping children in detention with their parents, undoing 2-decade-old rules that limit the time children can be held in custody. The White House sought the change.

[U.S. immigration: Data visualization of selected immigration statistics, U.S. border map]

Ryan earlier told reporters he's not comfortable with the government's "zero tolerance" policy, adding that "we don't want kids to be separated from their parents." Second-ranking Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas said he'll push legislation to keep parents and children together while the children await expedited status hearings.

"I think we all can agree that it's a terrible outcome, to see the children separated from their parents," Cornyn said at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Trump has been supportive of the House GOP's approach, but the legislation faces opposition from Democrats. It is unlikely to be approved in the Senate.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the legislation "nothing more than a cruel codification of President Trump's anti-immigrant agenda that abandons our nation's heritage as a beacon of hope and opportunity."

Earlier in the day, Ryan told a largely Hispanic audience that he remains committed to removing the threat of deportation now faced by those in the country illegally but stopped short of assuring that the House would pass legislation doing so.

"I want to begin by saying we all share a commitment to fixing this utterly broken immigration system, and we've got to find a way to do this," Ryan told the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington. "Please know that we believe this."

Ryan claimed Thursday that the family-separation policy is being dictated by a 1997 court ruling that prevents children from being held in custody for long periods.

The Trump administration has repeatedly cited other rationale for separating families. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly have described the family separations as a deterrent to people seeking asylum in the U.S.

"If people don't want to be separated from their children, they should not bring them with them," Sessions said in a June 5 interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show. "We've got to get this message out. You're not given immunity. You have to, you will be prosecuted if you bring, if you come illegally. And if you bring children, you'll still be prosecuted."

Kelly said in an interview with National Public Radio last month, "They're coming here for a reason, and I sympathize with the reason." He added, "But the laws are the laws. But a big name of the game is deterrence."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday blamed "loopholes" in the law that Democrats have refused to fix, even though Republicans control the House and Senate, and made no mention of deterrence as a reason for the policy.

"That's what the law states," Sanders said when asked about the family separations. "It doesn't have to be the law and the president has called on the Democrats in Congress to fix those loopholes."

Information for this article was contributed by Laura Litvan, Anna Edgerton, Anna Edney , Steven T. Dennis, Sahil Kapur and Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg News; by Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Matthew Daly, Kevin Freking, Jill Colvin, John Hanna and Colleen Long of The Associated Press; and by Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post.

A Section on 06/15/2018

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