GOP Plan for DACA Amnesty, Increased Immigration Fails Amid Public Pressure

Young immigrants, activists and supporters of the DACA program march through downtown Los
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty
John Binder

Six Republican Senators have failed to develop a coalition for their plan that exchanges a fifth of border wall funding for an amnesty for illegal aliens and increased immigration.

The plan, described to Breitbart News, was a creation of Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and would have tied $5.7 billion in funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall to an amnesty for illegal aliens enrolled and eligible in President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Also included in the plan was a provision to provide amnesty to foreign nationals who are in the United States as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries. The amnesty would have been rewarded to anywhere between 1.2 and 3.5 million DACA-enrolled and DACA-eligible illegal aliens, as well as the roughly 325,000 TPS foreign nationals.

The GOP Senators’ plan would have additionally increased the number of non-agricultural foreign workers that U.S. companies can import to take blue-collar American jobs. Already, the H-2B program gives business 66,000 cheap foreign workers every year.

In statements to the media, Graham said the plan had failed to come to fruition and garner support:

As Breitbart News most recently reported, blue-collar Americans in landscaping, conservation work, the meatpacking industry, construction industry, and fishing jobs have had their wages dragged down by foreign workers imported through the H-2B visa program.

The DACA amnesty-for-wall funding plan is despised by Trump’s most loyal supporters who have warned the administration against caving to the big business lobby and billionaire donor class, both of which have pushed for an amnesty for illegal aliens for the last two years.

Supporters of Trump had told Breitbart News that a DACA amnesty would nullify a border wall.

“Any support of DACA amnesty, before, after or during construction of a border wall is a betrayal to his campaign promises,” ALIPAC President and activist William Gheen said before the amnesty deal fell apart.

The plan came as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with the billionaire Koch brothers, have urged Republicans, Democrats, and Trump to pass an amnesty for DACA illegal aliens.

Corporate interests and the big business lobby have the most to gain from granting an amnesty to DACA illegal aliens, as legalizing millions of low-skilled foreign workers would drag down wages for Americans, drive up profit margins for corporations, and leave U.S. taxpayers with the costs.

A DACA amnesty would put more U.S.-born children of illegal aliens — commonly known as “anchor babies” — on federal welfare, as Breitbart News reported, while American taxpayers would be left with a $26 billion bill.

Additionally, about one in five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one in seven would go on Medicaid.

The chain migration inflow from a DACA amnesty has the potential to reach nine million foreign nationals arriving in the country, as every two newly naturalized citizens bring about seven foreign relatives to the U.S. with them. This is possibly nine million additional foreign nationals who would be admitted to the country, in addition to the 1.5 million illegal and legal immigrants that arrive annually.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. 

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