House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday told “Dreamers” to “rest easy” because his chamber will work with President Trump to come up with a plan to reform the immigration process a day after the administration began phasing out the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program.
“We will not be advancing legislation that doesn’t have the support of President Trump because we are going to work with the president on how to do this legislation,” Ryan (R-Wis.) said during a news conference of Republican House leaders.
“I think people should rest easy, and I think the president made the right call and the president also gave us the time and space we’re going to need to find where that compromise is,” Ryan said.
“This is a home that people know and they don’t know any other country as a home. I think there’s a serious humane issue here that needs to be dealt with, but it’s only fitting and reasonable that we also deal with some of the root causes of this problem because what we don’t want to have happen is another DACA problem 10 years from now. We want to make sure that we to fix this issue for these kids — for these young people — and address the root cause of the problem.”
But in the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s patience was already running out.
The New York Democrat called for a bill to protect the 800,000 young illegal immigrants — also known as “Dreamers” — caught in limbo over Trump’s decision, or his party would attach it to any must-pass legislation this fall.
“If a clean Dream Act does not come to the floor in September, we are prepared to attach it to other items this fall until it passes,” Schumer said at a news conference with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other colleagues.
Trump’s White House announced an end to the Obama-era policy that protects illegal immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation and gives them deferments to work and study in the US.
He also gave Congress six months to fix the problem.
Schumer said there is no time to waste.
“If this order stands, hundreds, hundreds of thousands of families will be ripped apart, tens of thousands of American businesses will lose hard-working employees,” Schumer said.