Report: Sen. Tillis Pushes ‘Conservative’ Amnesty Bill as DACA Solution

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is assembling a ‘conservative’ DREAM Act offering amnesty to existing DACA recipients, according to a Friday McClatchy report.

The reported bill in the works would create a “path to permanent residency,” better known as an amnesty, to 800,000 illegal aliens who received work permits under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order. If similar to a companion bill introduced by Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), up to 2.5 million young people would be rewarded with green cards and citizenship if they are able to get a college degree, serve in the military, or keep a job.

“It really is the conservative dreamer bill,” a congressional source told McClatchy.

President Trump himself repeatedly questioned the constitutionality of the DACA order, which President Obama issued after the original “dreamer bill” failed. The order told immigration authorities to ignore hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who violated the American border when they were young.

Tillis’s push for a new DREAM Act comes as President Donald Trump is under pressure by 10 state attorneys general to fulfill his campaign promise and end the DACA executive order. Reports last week indicated the president may be on the verge of ending the program. The states are threatening a lawsuit to have DACA declared unconstitutional after a court ruled against the complimentary DAPA order.

Passage of a bill like Tillis proposes would put to rest the constitutional concerns surrounding DACA. Unlike the questionable status of those simply given a low enforcement priority under Obama’s executive order that opponents contend is illegal, so-called “dreamers” become unequivocally legal immigrants under an act of Congress.

“Who cares about DACA if there’s a Dream Act,” a Republican “aware of Tillis’ plan” told McClatchy’s Washington bureau.

Dale Wilcox, Executive Director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, was unconvinced, noting the history of this kind of legislation. He told Breitbart News:

Since 2001, the DREAM Act has been introduced in Congress 24 times. Each time it was rejected. The electorate knows that amnesty always leads to more illegal immigration and more irresponsible behavior. That’s good for the Mexican elite who want to get rid of their unruly poor, it’s good for North Carolina’s cheap labor lobby who Senator Tillis kowtows to, but it’s bad for the American people. Who should our policies truly serve? The elites or the American people?

Trump’s own decision on whether to defend DACA from the impending lawsuit could come as early as Friday. He is reported to be under intense fire from globalists and open-borders advocates in the White House to keep the Policy, potentially in exchange for getting the Republican tax reform plan through Congress. Outside the White House, open-borders business leaders in tech are also lining up against ending DACA.

Conservatives, by contrast, are joining the state attorneys general in calling for DACA’s end. One such attorney general, Kris Kobach of Kansas, laid out his vision of how things will proceed if the matter winds up in court to Breitbart News this week. A bill like the one on which Tillis is reportedly working could nullify a victory in the courts.

Tillis rejected recent accusations that he is “pro-amnesty,” yet this bill only the latest in a series of apparent endorsements of paths to citizenship of one kind or another.