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By Nolan Rappaport
© Greg Nash
President Donald Trump and Republican congressmen have been trying unsuccessfully to cut a deal with the Democrats that would provide lawful status for the undocumented aliens in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The negotiations have seemed promising sometimes, such as when Trump offered a legalization program for 1.8 million undocumented aliens with his Framework on Immigration Reform & Border Security, but the Democrats would not agree to the concessions he was demanding in this four-pillar proposal.
hope the Democrats are not holding out for a DREAM Act like the American Hope Act of 2017, which would have legalized millions of undocumented aliens who came to America as children. I call it “The False Hope Act” in a previous article I wrote about it.
DREAM Acts have been pending since 2001. The Democrats could have passed one during Barack Obama’s administration. From January 2009 to January 2011, they had a strong majority in the House, and until Scott Brown’s special election in 2010, a filibuster-busting majority in the Senate. But they chose not to do it.
It might be more productive at this point to put negotiations about DACA and DREAM Acts aside and try a different approach. My suggestion is to work on creating a place in the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) program for the DACA participants.
This little-known humanitarian program makes lawful permanent resident (LPR) status available to undocumented alien children in the United States who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by one or both parents and who should not be returned to their own countries.
The SIJ Program
Read more at http://thehill.com/opinion/immigrati...-redefining-it
Published originally on The Hill.
About the author. Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an executive branch immigration law expert for three years; he subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years.
