Report: Jeff Flake ‘Quietly’ Crafting Gang of Eight-Style DACA Amnesty with Democrats

Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., questions witnesses Se
AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is “quietly” working with Democrats on new legislation to dole out amnesty to nearly 800,000 to 3.5 million illegal aliens, a new report reveals.

According to POLITICO, Flake has been working with Democrat Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) on a “Gang of Eight”-style amnesty deal for illegal aliens who are enrolled and eligible for the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) quietly began working with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) several weeks ago in a new “gang” to craft Dreamer legislation that could pick up 60 votes, according to a Flake spokesman. Flake and Bennet worked together nearly five years ago to write the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform measure. Aides declined to name all the senators who are involved, although Democratic officials said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois is also engaged in the talks.

“To have those kids go through another end of the year without knowing what their status is, is not good,” Flake said Monday evening. “There are a couple of issues we still need consensus on, but we’re getting close on a number of them.”

The failed Gang of Eight amnesty would have given the 12 to 30 million illegal aliens in the U.S. legal, permanent residence, allowing them to eventually bring their foreign relatives to the country as well while failing to end illegal immigration and having no cuts to legal immigration to offset the massive amnesty.

Such an amnesty would have the potential to lead to a chain migration whereby between 9.9 million and 19 million foreign nationals enter the U.S. over the next few decades, further crowding out Americans from the workforce and keeping American working and middle-class wages stagnant.

Since September, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that DACA would end in March 2018, the GOP establishment and Democrats have scrambled together multiple amnesty bills, though none have gained traction.

Flake’s latest push for amnesty comes after the House and Senate passed tax reform legislation, in which Flake claimed that the Senate Republican leadership promised him a DACA amnesty in exchange for his support for tax reform, as Breitbart News reported.

The White House has repeatedly said that it would only support a deal on DACA if such a plan included an end to chain migration — which makes up more than 70 percent of all legal immigration to the U.S. — as well as other pro-American immigration reforms like ending the Diversity Visa Lottery and mandating E-Verify where employers would be barred from hiring illegal aliens.

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

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.