Hopes of a deal to restore protections for undocumented immigrants brought here as children, or Dreamers, further dimmed this week.
The Senate failed to pass any of the four immigration bills it voted on Thursday. The proposal sponsored by Coons and Republican Sen. John McCain got 52 yes votes, eight short of the 60 needed.
A proposal co-sponsored by Delaware’s junior Sen. Chris Coons to protect undocumented young adults often known as “Dreamers” failed in the Senate Thursday. Coons also supported another proposal that won 54 votes. But Trump threatened to veto it. The administration also put out a press release saying it offered mass amnesty to undocumented immigrants.
Coons, who was in Wilmington Friday giving four Delaware high school students the Congressional Award, said that bill had the best chance of passing, if not for Trump’s continued rejection of bipartisan deals.
“The president needs to not actively against the one strong bipartisan compromise bill that was considered yesterday," he said. "I’m confident that in absence of the president’s veto threat and active lobbying against it, the compromise bill that was offered would have gotten 60 votes.”
Coons said he doesn't understand why Trump says he wants a bipartisan compromise, but then doesn't accept solutions Congress works out.
“It’s deeply puzzling to me that President Trump continues to say publicly that he would like to find a path forward for the Dreamers, that he supports their becoming citizens, yet he has steadfastly worked to undermine, or to block or to oppose every responsible bipartisan effort at resolving this crisis of his creation,” he said.
Trump said he supported the proposal that gave a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers in exchange for border wall funding and cuts to legal immigration. But that legislation garnered just 39 yes votes.
The Trump administration ended protections for undocumented immigrants brought here as children last September. But two federal judges have ruled that the administration can’t legally end the program.
