The United States Senate on Thursday rejected four proposals that could have protected 18 lakh young undocumented immigrants, as President Donald Trump called some of those plans a “total catastrophe”, Reuters reported.
These immigrants, called “Dreamers”, were to start losing legal protection from March 5, though federal courts have blocked this for now.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, a policy framed during the administration of former US President Barack Obama, protects nearly 8,00,000 immigrants called “Dreamers” from deportation and allows them to work and study legally in the country.
In September 2017, Trump revoked the plan and gave the Congress six months to enact new protections for the immigrants through legislation. Since then, the Republicans and the Democrats have tried to reach a consensus, and Trump has repeatedly agreed to protect the Dreamers only if the Democrats support his other measures to curb immigration.
One of the bipartisan plans included compromises on both sides, as it proposed protecting Dreamers as well as financing Trump’s long-promised wall along the Mexico border and tightening border security, The Guardian reported. However, the White House refused to back this plan and threatened a veto.
Instead, Trump backed a Republican plan that got only 39 votes for and 60 against.
“This vote is proof that President Trump’s plan will never become law,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said. “If he would stop torpedoing bipartisan efforts, a good bill would pass.”
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