President Trump's action on Tuesday to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program has forced Americans to once again look towards Congress to act. The Trump administration's decision gave Congress six months to review the action and to start working on a solution. Despite the consensus that Republicans might not follow through, it's been reported that some Republican lawmakers are making an effort to protect DREAMers or those who came to the U.S. as children and who are supposed to be protected under the program.

Congressional Republicans considering immigration plan

According to an article by Voice of America titled: "US Congress Pushes DACA Debate Down the Road", the administration's announcement triggered Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) to introduce a proposal for one of the several pieces of legislation by congressional Republicans, that would codify the DACA plan. The VOA article said that as soon as Republicans consider looking at an immigration plan, they could either bundle legislation with border security -- which President Trump has been persistent about -- or introduce it as its own legislation.

Last month, while the Congress was still out on August recess, Trump said that if the Hill didn't fit in funding for his border wall into the end-of-the-year budget proposal, that he would shut down the government.

However, now with the need to fund disaster relief for the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey and the President's recent support for Democrat's idea for a three-month debt ceiling -- which he signed, it would seem that a government shutdown would be avoided for now.

Bills to replace DACA

In another article by the New York Times titled: "The DACA ‘Fix’ That Immigration Activists Fear", the Curbelo's Recognizing America's Children Act seemed to be getting a lot of vocal support among congressional Republicans.

The piece referred to Curbelo's interview with NPR where he said that he was getting an overwhelming response from Republicans who support giving DREAMers a chance to earn a path to citizenship.

The article also referred to the catch-22 where Republicans would support extended stays for immigrants provided that there were increases in border security.

Another piece of legislation sponsored by Rep. Mike Coffman, (R-Colo) was brought back immediately after attorney general Jeff Sessions made the announcement to rescind DACA. Coffman said that he planned to file a discharge petition just to get the Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy (BRIDGE) Act onto the House floor.

The BRIDGE act was already introduced back in January, and would also do what Curbelo's bill does and codify the current DACA program into law. In the process, it would extend stays for DREAMers for three-years in order to buy more time to put together comprehensive immigration reform. The article also mentioned that Rep. Luis Gutierrez, (D-Ill) has a more aggressive response when it was expected that Trump was going to do away with DACA.

Rep. Gutierrez introduced a bill in July called The American Hope Act which already has 112 Democratic co-sponsors and is said to be flanked by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The act would allow anyone under 18 to be eligible for the program unless they had a criminal record. It also offers the quickest paths to citizenship such as conditional permanent residency, lawful permanent residence status, and U.S. citizenship. While it's a noble effort, It's unlikely to get any support outside of the Democratic Party whose bills -- until recently -- had been rejected by the majority Republican Party.

Against the Freedom Caucus

But moderate congressional Republicans who would like to bring up these bills are already under threat from the Freedom Caucus.

The Freedom Caucus has proven itself to be a group of the most extreme conservatives who have much of their ideology invested in anti-immigration agendas. For instance, one member, Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), already has a history with an anti-immigration hate group called FAIR. With that extremist element in the House, comprehensive immigration reform is already a divisive issue among Republicans. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-ILL) has said that he was working on bringing back the DREAM act this week, for which he claims there is a lot of support for by the President.
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