Sen. Roy Blunt open to granting citizenship to DREAMers

USA Today

By Deirdre Shesgreen

November 08, 2017

Sen. Roy Blunt open to granting citizenship to DREAMers

Sen. Roy Blunt said Tuesday he could support a path to citizenship for the so-called DREAMers, the 800,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.

It would be “totally unreasonable” to make the DREAMers “go back and live in a country that they didn’t grow up in,” Blunt told reporters. “And we want to have all the talent and capability we can have in the (U.S.).”

Blunt’s comments mark a shift for the Missouri Republican — who is also a member of the Senate GOP leadership — on a hot-button issue that President Trump threw into Congress’ lap earlier this year. In September, Trump announced he would gradually phase out the Obama-era immigration program designed to protect the DREAMers.

Lawmakers have until March to address the issue; if they don’t act, those immigrants could be sent back to countries they left when they were toddlers. Critics have called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, “amnesty” and suggested those young immigrants have taken jobs from Americans. Supporters, including former president Barack Obama, have called Trump’s move “cruel” and heartless.

Blunt has previously said he supported reforming the DACA program. But he had not publicly endorsed granting those immigrants citizenship, until Tuesday.

“There’s always ways that that can include a path to citizenship and particularly for kids who grew up here,” Blunt said when asked whether he supported citizenship for the DREAMers.

Blunt said any such proposal would also have to include funding to beef up border security. Trump has said he wants Congress to fund his proposal for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, a demand Democrats have rejected.

“Surely we can find a way to move forward on both of those issues,” Blunt said Tuesday. He said “in the interest of time,” lawmakers could include a compromise on the immigration issue in a year-end spending bill that Congress must pass by Dec. 8.

Some Republicans have flatly ruled out adding a DACA fix to the spending bill, saying it should be dealt with separately next year.

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