Washington, D.C. – Several top U.S. conservative leaders and organizations, representing millions of members, are amenable to making current beneficiaries of the soon-to-be defunct Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at least eligible for renewable residency permits (with a lasting bar to U.S. citizenship, due to their initial unlawful entry into the country), but only after the federal government’s official apprehension statistics convincingly demonstrate that U.S. border security safeguards have reached the point of being able to prevent any additional illegal influxes of foreign nationals, including those with spurious claims of asylum, from ever again unlawfully gaining entry into the country or gaming the asylum system.
“Millions of conservatives in Texas and across the country are willing to give the DACA beneficiaries a break, but not a permanent amnesty, much less a path to citizenship,” said John Hostettler, Vice President of Federal Affairs at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which last year launched a Border Security Coalition of some 20 top conservative leaders and organizations across the country. “Not all the members of the Border Security Coalition are on the same page on this issue,” Hostettler added. “The Heritage Foundation, for example, has stated that it will oppose DACA-style relief under any circumstances. What we all do agree on, however, is that any major congressional action on immigration must include securing the southwestern border and ending the massive asylum abuse that led to the crisis we had on the border last year.”
“The way we see it at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, border security – and very specifically, the end to the massive abuse of the asylum system which directly led to the latest crisis – must be foundational to achieving all the major changes to the U.S. immigration system that are necessary,” said Hostettler. Earlier this month, Hostettler welcomed what he called “long overdue” rule changes announced by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that take aim at the fraud, fabrication as well as the bureaucratic quagmire that have increasingly plagued the asylum system.
The former six-term Indiana congressman and Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims stated that these and other changes are necessary for securing the country’s border, including a still pending congressional amendment to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 that would treat all unaccompanied minors equally, eliminating the current distinction that is made between those from contiguous countries and noncontiguous countries.
The TPPF-spearheaded Border Security Coalition was formed in October of 2019, shortly after the organization stood up its Right on Immigration initiative, which focuses on “policies that secure the border and restore the rule of law as we fix and improve legal immigration to the United States of America.”