John Cornyn: Senate Should Pass Stand-Alone DACA Amnesty for Illegal Aliens

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) says the United States Senate should pass an amnesty for illegal aliens enrolled and eligible for former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as a stand-alone piece of legislation.

This week, as Breitbart News reported, Cornyn and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) led a meeting with 12 other Senate Republicans and Democrats to explore the possibility of giving amnesty to 3.5 million enrolled and eligible DACA illegal aliens.

The other Senators in the meeting included Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ).

Though Durbin said this week that including U.S.-Mexico border-related provisions in a DACA amnesty is “one of the tickets of admission” to garner support from Republicans, Cornyn told Roll Call that he wants to pass a stand-alone DACA amnesty.

“I would like to find a permanent solution for the DACA young people. I’m no longer comfortable using them to leverage other immigration provisions,” Cornyn said.

Republican voters are overwhelmingly opposed to amnesty for illegal aliens, surveys and polls have continuously shown for years. The latest Rasmussen Reports survey finds 63 percent of GOP voters are opposed to an amnesty for DACA illegal aliens. Just 3-in-10 Republicans said they support such a plan.

The amnesty discussions come as illegal immigration has overwhelmed the southern border for months, with no end in sight. In March, federal immigration officials apprehended nearly 170,000 border crossers, including more than 18,600 UACs, nearly 53,000 family units, and nearly 97,000 single adults.

Analysis conducted this month predicts 1.2 million border crossers will be apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border this year, not including those illegal aliens who successfully cross into the country. This would be a level of illegal immigration not seen since the Great Recession.

A DACA amnesty would put more U.S. citizen children of illegal aliens — commonly referred to as “anchor babies” — on federal welfare, as Breitbart News reported, while American taxpayers would be left potentially with a $26 billion bill.

Additionally, about one-in-five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one-in-seven would go on Medicaid.

Since DACA’s inception, more than 2,100 recipients of the program have been kicked off because they were found to either be criminals or gang members.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.