Nationwide unemployment is at a 30 year low. Employers are clamoring for more workers at every level, from manual labor to PhD researchers. Over 700,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have lived here for at least eleven and as many as 36 years have only the federal courts standing between them and loss of their legal status and work eligibility following the Administration’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Business associations, religious leaders, the general public, including a majority of Republicans and Trump supporters, believe that Congress must create a path to legal status for these DACA/Dreamers.
Congress has not been able to get this done, in part due to the shifting positions of the president. After insisting that any DACA deal would have to include border security, in March President Trump turned down a bipartisan Senate offer that did just that, and instead moved the goalpost to reject any bill that would not substantially gut the U.S. system for immediate-family immigration.
Where things stand now.
Recently, several moderate Republicans initiated a discharge petition, going around House leadership to advance a “Queen of the Hill” maneuver to bring four separate DACA-related bills to the House floor for a vote. The discharge petition had gathered 213 of the 218 needed supporters, including 23 Republicans, before the effort was put on hold leading into the Memorial Day recess. The pause will allow negotiations on a DACA solution to continue in the House, but if no deal is reached, the leaders of the discharge petition effort have pledged to resume gathering signatories in early June.
In the meantime, President Trump has reiterated he won’t sign a bill that doesn’t include funding for the border wall, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated he might not schedule a vote on a DACA relief bill unless there’s an indication that the President would sign it. This Washington Post article summarizes the state of play as of the start of Congress’s Memorial Day recess.
Once/if the discharge petition begins to move again, it will need five more Republicans to get it across the finish line. Most Democrats have signed it, including Rep. Chellie Pingree. While Rep. Bruce Poliquin has expressed support for DACA youth, he has yet to sign on.
Maine has several hundred DACA holders. They are our neighbors, classmates, coworkers, friends, family members. They are college students, entrepreneurs, and working in jobs ranging from high tech to hospitality to shipbuilding to agriculture.
With Maine’s 2.7% unemployment rate, its lowest in 40 years, and with our aging population, keeping our DACA community members here is not only the right thing to do, it’s also essential for Maine’s workforce and economy. Rep. Poliquin should sign the discharge petition once Congress gets back to work in June, should it be needed to force a vote on a path to legal status for DACA holders.