WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado this week joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers in introducing legislation that would shield from deportation hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children.
Their proposal comes at critical time for this issue.
During the campaign, Donald Trump took a hard-line stance on immigration, and he has vowed to undo executive actions ordered by President Barack Obama. One of the most controversial of those actions was a 2012 decree, known as , that barred federal officials from deporting immigrants who arrived illegally in the U.S. before their 16th birthday and don’t have a felony.
While Trump appears to have softened his stance toward the immigrants shielded by this program — saying in a that “we’re going to work something out” — the concerns of immigrant advocates have driven lawmakers such as Coffman to offer a temporary fix.
“We don’t know what President Trump — President-elect Trump — is actually going to do when he becomes president. There have been statements all over the board,” said U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., at a news conference Friday announcing the bill. “Itap important we act promptly.”
At its most basic, the legislation would provide a three-year shield for these immigrants as Congress devises a more permanent solution.
It has been introduced in the House and Senate, and its backers include U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., as well as Coffman, R-Aurora, and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill.
The idea, Coffman said at the news conference, is twofold: to provide a vehicle for Congress to debate the issue and to put on notice the incoming Trump administration.
“We don’t want him (Trump) to overturn the executive order from the prior administration, which he could do,” said Coffman. “This certainly sends a strong message, not just to our congressional leadership but also to the incoming administration, that this is a very important program that needs to be preserved.”
Coffman added that he recently had a conversation with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who encouraged him to speak with officials working the issue.
For Coffman, the proposal represents another chapter in his roller-coaster record on Trump and immigration.
Early in his career, Coffman was an who backed efforts to end birthright citizenship. But he changed course after he was drawn into a district with a large Latino population and split between GOP and Democratic voters.
Those factors were among the reasons that Democrat Morgan Carroll tried unsuccessfully last year to unseat Coffman.
As part of that campaign, Carroll brought in Gutiérrez — one of the co-sponsors of the new immigrant bill — to stump against Coffman.
Asked Friday about that interplay, Gutiérrez said it wasn’t unusual.
“Thatap the way democracy works. We have a two-party system,” he said. “But don’t worry. There will be many in the Democratic party who will come and say today that I just gave him a gift. But itap the policy that has to be the most important thing.”
Over the course of his 2016 campaign, Coffman criticized Trump but did not say whom he’d vote for. Ultimately, for Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence.
Since then, Coffman has continued to walk that line, recently describing Trump’s plan to have Mexico pay for a border wall as a campaign “.”