Keeping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in place without implementing significant modifications could result in the “largest amnesty in the history of the United States,” according to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner’s editorial board on Tuesday, Cotton explained that outcome would be the consequence of DACA “[creating] an entire new category of persons who are eligible for chain migration.”
“In fact, the very first people that would be eligible are the parents of the DACA recipients,” he stated, “which is to say the very people who broke the law by bringing their kids here.”
“Democrats frequently like to say that children ought not pay for the crimes of their parents — you could say that children ought not be rewarded for the crimes of their parents — but let’s set that aside and agree, maybe, that parents should pay for the crimes of the parents,” Cotton contended.
“If we don’t change underlying laws about chain migration, which account for almost two-thirds of all green cards this country gives out every year,” the first-term senator warned, “then this could be the largest amnesty in the history of the United States.”
Cotton explained that the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act, his immigration legislation with David Perdue, is “a natural pair with any kind of codification of DACA” because the bill “puts an end to chain migration and it focuses our legal immigration system of the types of immigrants we need in our country today.”
Cotton says the RAISE Act, which President Trump announced support for in August, would focus that system on bringing “younger, higher-skilled, well-educated immigrants” into the country.
Trump has given Congress six months to act on DACA before rescinding the program. In his interview with the Washington Examiner editorial board on Tuesday, Cotton called that decision “prudent.”
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
