Tech giant Microsoft is telling Congress to push tax reform aside to focus on amnesty.
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will be rolling back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protects roughly 800,000 illegal immigrants from deportation. This decision has been met with horror by major corporations, Democrats, and establishment GOP lawmakers.
“We are deeply disappointed by the administration’s decision today to rescind protection under the program for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). As we said last week, we believe this is a big step back for our entire country,” Microsoft’s president Brad Smith said in a statement. “The administration has given Congress six months to replace DACA with new legislation. We believe this means that Congress now needs to reprioritize the fall legislative calendar and move quickly with new legislation to protect these 800,000 Dreamers. This means that Congress should adopt legislation on DACA before it tries to adopt a tax reform bill. This is the only way, given the number of legislative days Congress has scheduled over the next six months, we realistically can expect Congress to complete DACA legislation in time.”
The Daily Caller reported Monday that immigration hawks think Congress could pass a legislative amnesty for the 800,000 or so “dreamers.” President Donald Trump said in a statement Tuesday that he is proving a “window of opportunity for Congress to finally act” on immigration.
“Congress now has the opportunity to advance responsible immigration reform that puts American jobs and American security first. We are facing the symptom of a larger problem, illegal immigration, along with the many other chronic immigration problems Washington has left unsolved. We must reform our green card system, which now favors low-skilled immigration and puts immense strain on U.S. taxpayers,” Trump said.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at Tuesday’s press briefing that the president wants “responsible” reform that would address the whole immigration system, not just a bill addressing “dreamers.”
Microsoft president Smith stated Tuesday that if the 39 DACA beneficiaries who work for company don’t receive protection then his “company will exercise its legal rights properly to help protect our employees.”
“If the government seeks to deport any one of them, we will provide and pay for their legal counsel,” Smith added.
The announcement from the Trump administration Tuesday will allow many DACA beneficiaries to keep their status until as late as 2019.
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