Exclusive–Rosemary Jenks: GOP Trying to ‘Redefine Amnesty’ Under Trump

NumbersUSA’s Rosemary Jenks says Republicans are “redefining amnesty” in the age of President Trump to pass legislation that would codify President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program into law.

In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Sunday, Jenks said Trump’s offer that includes giving work permits to about a million illegal aliens and foreign nationals in exchange for a fifth of border wall funding is, by previous definitions, amnesty.

Jenks said:

I actually heard Vice President Pence talking about this and he actually said ‘It’s not amnesty because it doesn’t give a path to citizenship.’ And that’s correct, it doesn’t give a path to citizenship but neither did DACA. And there is no Republican in Washington who did not consider DACA, amnesty. [Emphasis added]

So now all of the sudden, that it’s President Trump’s deal, we’re redefining amnesty to only be if you give a path to citizenship which is crazy. The reason illegal aliens come to the United States is to live and to work. So in this case, this deal would give DACA recipients and TPS beneficiaries work permits and permission to live here for three years. The whole plan — and President Trump has said this — is that gives time for Congress to come up with a more permanent solution. In other words, a permanent amnesty instead of just a temporary amnesty. [Emphasis added]

Listen to Jenks’ full interview here:

Trump’s offer to Republicans and Democrats is a plan that gives amnesty in the form of three-year work permits to a little more than 700,000 illegal aliens who are enrolled in the DACA program.

The deal also provides 325,000 foreign nationals living in the U.S. on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) amnesty to remain in the country. In return, about $5.7 billion would be secured to build a barrier at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Like Pence, Trump has said the plan is not amnesty.

Republicans, though, for years classified Obama’s DACA program as an “executive amnesty” because it gave work permits and Social Security numbers to young illegal aliens, while shielding them from deportation.

Trump’s offer does the same as Obama’s original program, except now the DACA program would be codified into federal law.

“It’s hard to see what we gain for codifying amnesty in exchange for maybe getting a wall or a part of the wall,” Jenks said.