White House Hopes to Offer Pathway to Citizenship for Dreamers

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Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., speaks to reporters as he leaves the office of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is moderating bipartisan negotiations on immigration, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. President Donald Trump has given Congress until March to come up with a plan to protect the nearly 700,000 young people who had been protected from deportation and given the right to work legally in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Trump announced he was ending DACA last year. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., speaks to reporters as he leaves the office of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is moderating bipartisan negotiations on immigration, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. President Donald Trump has given Congress until March to come up with a plan to protect the nearly 700,000 young people who had been protected from deportation and given the right to work legally in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Trump announced he was ending DACA last year. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., speaks to reporters as he leaves the office of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is moderating bipartisan negotiations on immigration, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. President Donald Trump has given Congress until March to come up with a plan to protect the nearly 700,000 young people who had been protected from deportation and given the right to work legally in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Trump announced he was ending DACA last year. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The White House will present a new immigration framework to Congress next week, stating it will offer a pathway to citizenship for as many as 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought into the United States as children in exchange for billions in funds for a border wall and significant new restrictions to legal immigration. As President Donald Trump wrapped up his day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, several aides at the White House briefed reporters on the outline of the framework while stopping short of expressing optimism the plan would gain bipartisan support.

The plan would demand $20 billion in funds for construction of a wall along the U.S.- Mexico border and significant cuts in family-based migration, making it so only the spouses and younger children of immigrants can enter the country with their “sponsor.” The administration is also calling for an extra $5 billion in border security measures and an end to the Visa Lottery system.

In exchange, the White House said President Trump would sign an immigration bill that includes a 10-12 year path to citizenship for 1.8 million “Dreamers” “with requirements for work, education and good moral character,” according to the White House framework.

It marks a significant increase to the population of approximately 690,000 undocumented immigrants who have received protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program. The plan would not provide protections for the parents of Dreamers. The proposal is likely to be met with opposition on both sides of the aisle.

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