San Antonio Express-News: A DACA fix this year looks unlikely

WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress are growing increasingly pessimistic that an agreement to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation can be reached this year.

Laredo Democrat Henry Cuellar says it might take a miracle to get a deal done before lawmakers go home for the holidays.

But immigration advocates hold out hope an agreement can be achieved in the Senate, which yet could force action in the House before likely adjournment next week. Bipartisan negotiations among senators were under way Thursday.

The nearly 800,000 so-called Dreamers in jeopardy since the Trump administration canceled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program have pressed for resolving matters this month.

President Donald Trump gave Congress until early March to write legislation restoring protections, a date GOP leaders in Congress see as affording sufficient time for a solution.

But advocates note that an average of 122 DACA recipients lose protections daily because their applications for renewal weren't received by Oct. 5, the deadline the administration prescribed, resulting in a loss of protections when work permits expire. And waiting until 2018 could bring more problems because of election year pressures, they say.

"You have an unfolding crisis in which young American kids are losing jobs and being exposed to deportation, and Republican leadership is saying we can kick the can down the road," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, an immigrant advocacy group.

In the House, Speaker Paul Ryan appears to have gained the upper hand largely due to unusual unity in his Republican caucus.

That unity showed last week when 221 Republicans voted for a two-week extension to avoid a shutdown — more than the 218 needed — showing Democrats they would be unable to forge a DACA fix by withholding their votes.

Another big vote to keep the government funded is scheduled next week, perhaps extending the DACA deadline until early next year. But the potential of a sufficient number of members withholding their votes and risking blame for causing a shutdown appears to have diminished.

"We're trying to put as much leverage on Republicans as we can, but they are saying early next year. I was hoping we could do it by the end of the year and maybe a miracle will happen, but I don't see it right now," said Cuellar, a moderate in his party.

"I hate to put it so cold, but do you shut down the government for 800,000 people at the expense of 320 million Americans? That's really what you're looking at," he said.

San Antonio Democrat Joaquin Castro said the best chance to help the young undocumented immigrants is yet this year amid the urgency of must-pass spending bills.

"Once the Congress gets beyond that, it will become harder to leverage support for DACA into successful legislation," he said.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-San Antonio, said in a statement that he won't support spending legislation next week absent a DACA fix.

"Republican leadership wants to use the successes of our Dreamers as a bargaining chip for President Trump's anti-immigrant Christmas wish list — building an unnecessary border wall, separating immigrant families, targeting sanctuary cities, and more," Doggett said.

San Antonio Republican Will Hurd faces growing pressure to buck GOP leadership. His North San Antonio office was the target of a protest on Thursday organized by the Texas State Teachers Association.

The associations says about 2,000 Dreamers are teachers in Texas.

"At a time when Texas has a teacher shortage and a majority of Texas students are Hispanic, these teachers have a special ability to connect with their students and show them the importance of education," TSTA President Noel Candelaria said.

Sharry likewise took aim at Hurd.

"If Hurd and other moderates stand up and tell Paul Ryan that they're not going to vote for a (continuing resolution) unless it includes a DACA fix, it would pass," Sharry said. "Will Hurd is in perfect position to help craft the deal. But nice statements are not going to do it. What's needed is a firm backbone."

Hurd, who represents a predominately Hispanic district, was appointed by Ryan to a working group assigned to come up with a negotiated solution.

He recently joined 33 other Republicans in a letter to Ryan urging action by year's end. He didn't respond Thursday to request for comment.

Congress thus far has been immune to protests by so-called Dreamers and their advocates on Capitol Hill that have grown in size and frequency.

On Tuesday, a group called United We Dream erected a jumbotron screen on the National Mall, in the view of Ryan's west-facing office. Their "DreamActTron" is running videos of stories about young undocumented immigrants.

Nor has Congress responded to pleas by industry leaders, the latest Thursday from the unlikely duo of Apple CEO Tim Cook and Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch.

Co-writing an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Cook and Koch challenged Congress to "show the courage to embrace diversity and to do what is right. We have no illusions about how difficult it can be to get things done in Washington, and we know that people of good faith disagree about aspects of immigration policy. If ever there were an occasion to come together to help people improve their lives, this is it."

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who over the years has told stories about Dreamers' challenges, presented a detailed look at the life of Carla Martinez of San Antonio, who's among more than 120,000 DACA recipients in Texas.

Martinez, 24, who was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, excelled in school soon after arriving in Pflugerville at age 8. Alongside poster-size photos of Martinez, Durbin told colleagues how she'd been an honor student in high school and graduated last spring with a civil engineering degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio without benefit of Pell Grants or other assistance that is unavailable to DACA recipients.

"She often had to choose between food and buying books," Durbin said.

In an interview, Martinez, an engineer-in-training at the M&S Engineering New Braunfels branch, said she plans on getting an MBA and hopes one day to establish a scholarship program to help others.

"I'm greatly disappointed to hear this," she said when told of Congress's lack of progress. "As time goes by, I get closer to losing my career, my job and my income."