{"id":152588,"date":"2018-02-13T00:50:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T05:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=152588"},"modified":"2018-02-13T00:50:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T05:50:13","slug":"senate-gop-dem-leaders-say-its-time-for-immigration-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/13\/senate-gop-dem-leaders-say-its-time-for-immigration-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate GOP, Dem leaders say it’s time for immigration deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: The Senate’s two top leaders put on a show of comradery Monday as their chamber launched its immigration debate, but also laid down markers underscoring how hard it will be to reach a deal that can move through Congress. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Senate’s two top leaders put on a show of comradery Monday as their chamber launched its immigration debate, but also laid down markers underscoring how hard it will be to reach a deal that can move through Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really do get along, despite what you read in the press,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a previously scheduled appearance alongside his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at the University of Louisville.<\/p>\n

There was even ribbing when Schumer presented McConnell with a bottle of bourbon made in his home New York City borough of Brooklyn. McConnell, whose state knows a thing or two about bourbon, proclaimed, \u201cThere’s no such thing as Brooklyn bourbon.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just days after the two leaders brokered a bipartisan $400 billion budget agreement and helped shepherd it into law, both men made clear that an immigration agreement will be tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time for political posturing is behind us,\u201d McConnell said later Monday on the Senate floor. He said while Democrats have called for \u201cswift action\u201d on immigration, \u201cNow’s the time to back up the talk with the hard work of finding a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, he pointedly said, would mean passage by the Senate and the House of a measure \u201cwhich the president will sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

McConnell expressed his support for a wide-ranging proposal by President Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0that the Senate is expected to vote on this week. It would pave a path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million young \u201cDreamer\u201d immigrants in the U.S. illegally, a lure for Democrats that many Republicans oppose.<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0also wants $25 billion for\u00a0Trump’s border wall with Mexico and other security measures, as well as curbs on legal immigration \u2014 a must for many Republicans. Many Democrats consider some of the proposals, including limiting the relatives that legal immigrants can bring to the U.S., to be non-starters.<\/p>\n

In his own remarks on the Senate floor, Schumer expressed opposition to such a sweeping approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only enemy here is overreach,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cNow is not the time nor the place to reform the entire legal immigration system. Rather, this is the time for a narrow bill\u201d \u2014 which Democrats have said would help the Dreamers and provide some money for border security.<\/p>\n

The comments came as the Senate voted 97-1 \u2014 Ted Cruz, R-Texas, provided the sole \u201cno\u201d vote \u2014 to plunge into an open-ended immigration debate that’s been promised by McConnell. Both parties’ leaders hope debate can be concluded this week, but it’s unclear if that will happen or what the product, if any, will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be done or not done this week,\u201d No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas told reporters.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers’ focus will be the Dreamers, hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who have lived in the U.S. illegally since being brought here as children.<\/p>\n

They had been given temporary protection from deportation by President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.\u00a0Trump\u00a0has said he’ll end that program March 5, though a federal court has temporarily blocked him from scuttling it.<\/p>\n

Trump’s overall immigration plan, opposed by many Democrats, stands little chance of prevailing because any measure will need 60 votes. That means proposals will need substantial bipartisan support since the GOP majority is 51-49, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been absent in recent weeks battling cancer.<\/p>\n

Highlighting the partisan gap, there was plenty of finger-pointing Monday.<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0put the onus on Democrats, saying, \u201cI hope the Democrats are not going to use it just as a campaign\u201d issue.<\/p>\n

No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin of Illinois said the key impediment to a bipartisan deal was\u00a0Trump’s history of switching positions on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cNailing the president down has been next to impossible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Senate’s two top leaders put on a show of comradery Monday as their chamber launched its immigration …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":143816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46504,23699],"class_list":["post-152588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-immigration","tag-immigration-deal","tag-senate-gop","mauthors-alan-fram","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}