U.S. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) will introduce legislation to address DACA and border security.
The McCain-Coons legislation is a Senate companion bill to the Uniting and Securing America (USA) Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Representatives Will Hurd (R-TX-23) and Pete Aguilar (D-CA-31) to protect Dreamers from deportation and provide a pathway to citizenship while implementing new border security measures. Dreamers, a term Trump says he dislikes refers to young people who came to the U.S. with their undocumented parents
The USA Act already has 54 co-sponsors in the House — an even split of 27 Republicans and 27 Democrats.
President Trump, who is no fan of McCain, called the bill a waste of time because it did not contain funding for a border wall. Coons
“It’s no secret that Congress is gridlocked, and there is a growing list of unaddressed issues we simply have to fix, but I still believe that we agree on more than we disagree on,” said Coons. “The bill I’m introducing with Senator McCain today doesn’t solve every immigration issue, but it does address the two most pressing problems we face: protecting DACA recipients and securing the border. I believe there is bipartisan support for both of those things and I believe that we can reach a budget deal that increases funding for our military and important domestic programs. We need to find a way through this gridlock to get Congress working again, and this is a viable path forward.”
Coons added: “I have been and remain very encouraged by the bipartisan negotiations toward an immigration compromise that Senators Collins and Manchin have hosted through the Common Sense Coalition, and I plan to continue working with that group to try and find a way forward. The purpose of the legislation I’m introducing today with Senator McCain is to highlight this existing, bipartisan House bill and to add another viable, bipartisan option to the table.”
A summary of the bill is available here.
