US Senate debates on Immigration bill, DACA

On Tuesday, McConnell said the Senate would limit its work to this week only to provide a permanent framework following the expiration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals(DACA) - setting in place a definitive deadline for an tough piece of immigration legislation that would grant earned citizenship to 1.8 million undocumented immigrants and likely amp up immigration enforcement.

"It would be a two-pillar bill", he added.

"I am asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfil these four pillars - that includes opposing any short-term "Band-Aid" approach".

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who is part of the bipartisan group, said he supports the Grassley plan, but realizes it may not earn sufficient support in the Senate. The party's No. 2 Senate leader, Dick Durbin of IL, said some Democrats had "serious issues" with parts of the plan.

The bill McConnell supports was crafted exclusively by Republican senators, including Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Cornyn of Texas, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, David Perdue of Georgia, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa.

"We need a 21st century MERIT-BASED immigration system".

Grassley's "Secure and Succeed Act", would appropriate $25 billion for border security including "physical and virtual fencing, radar and other technologies". Trump wants to aim USA immigrant visas at high-skilled workers and allow fewer relatives of legal immigrants.

Like the proposal Trump unveiled last month, the measure would offer a chance for citizenship for up to 1.8 million people who arrived in the U.S.as children and stayed illegally.

McConnell led off the immigration debate with a proposal on "sanctuary cities" ― jurisdictions that don't fully cooperate with deportation efforts. The president has vowed that any bill codifying Obama-era protections for illegal immigrants into law must be accompanied by funding for a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border, and that it must end both chain migration and the diversity visa lottery program.

Trump's remarks come during a raucous open immigration debate in the Senate, where lawmakers are working furiously to find an immigration compromise that can meet the chamber's 60-vote threshold by the end of the week.

Instead of going to the Toomey bill, Schumer suggested McConnell should bring up two proposals that he said mark the "bounds" of the immigration debate. "But I do think it will get support of nearly everybody, if not everybody" in the negotiating group.

Cotton argued that Democratic support for Trump's immigration compromise framework is "the electorally smart thing to do" in a midterm election year.

Top Republicans said Trump's plan has the best shot at becoming law out of those being considered.

Meanwhile, Trump said he is "encouraged" by ongoing attempts to build support for a moreconservative immigration overhaul plan introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

"The Goodlatte-McCaul bill is the bill that we're going to be moving", Scalise told reporters. But that will take Democrats willing to sacrifice other priorities to make sure these brown people have protection.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice condemns any trading on the lives of immigrants who have lived and worked in the USA for decades or pitting parents, family members, and other immigrant communities against the people that we seek to protect. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina.

Senators took a key step toward opening debate on immigration Monday evening, kicking off an exercise with little modern precedent that could affect millions of lawful and undocumented immigrants.