The White House dropped a bombshell into the ongoing debate over Dreamers and immigration in general. In a moment reminiscent of Ronald Reagan, President Donald Trump proposed a pathway for citizenship for up to 1.8 million undocumented immigrants. This is more than double the number granted by the Obama administration. The pathway to citizenship would extend not only to Dreamers, but hundreds of thousands of others. The process to obtain citizenship would take roughly 10 to 12 years, according to President Trump.
In 1986 the Regan administration similarly extended a pathway to legal citizenship to over 2.7 million undocumented immigrants. Roughly a million of those immigrants eventually obtained citizenship through the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Many of those who did not obtain full citizenship instead received legal residency.
In exchange for the “dramatic concession,” the White House is asking for $25 million to build an expanded border wall. The White House is also asking for more funding to beef up border security. Further, “loopholes” that make it difficult to deport undocumented immigrants would also be closed.
The “diversity lottery” would also be abolished. Instead, pathways to citizenship would be extended to high-skilled immigrants. Many such immigrants are already able to come to the United States under temporary work visas. Under President Trump’s proposal, these immigrants would have an easier path to permanent residency.
The ‘diversity lottery’ would also be abolished. Instead, pathways to citizenship would be extended to high-skilled immigrants.
Democrats will find the compromise hard to swallow. The border wall funding likely won’t raise too many eyebrows. Many have called into question the effectiveness of such a wall. As the saying goes, build a 10-foot wall and they’ll bring a 12-foot ladder. Regardless, Democrats have already put forward border wall funding as a compromise.
The end of the diversity lottery would mark a dramatic historical shift in America’s immigration policies. Allowing “unskilled” immigrants to move to America is a part of the DNA of the “Land of Opportunity.” Many Americans today are here because of similar immigration policies that didn’t focus on skilled workers but instead on allowing migrants of all stripes to move to America to make a new life for themselves.
Once, immigration to the United States was all but unregulated. Millions would show up at America’s shores, being granted citizenship upon arrival. This is reflected by the famous inscription on the Statue of Liberty in New York’s harbor:
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
Such open-ended immigration would likely no longer work for the United States. However, the lottery has long been seen as a way to extend the underlying ideals embodied by the inscription, allowing anyone a chance at the American Dream but ensuring that the number of arrivals is sustainable.
Now, Senate Democrats will have to decide if that ideal is something worth fighting for or a compromise they can make.
