Thursday AM Immigration Bulletin: Ten for Dreamers?

Good morning! Yesterday was SUPER busy on the immigration beat at the Capitol as immigrant rights advocates turned up en force to pitch their relief proposals in the lame duck.

The day began with the House and Senate holding competing immigrant rights press conferences across the Capitol parking lot from each other in the 11 o'clock hour.

House-side, Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) lead a press conference about the  Farm Workforce Modernization Act that would create a special immigrant status for farmworkers.

The bipartisan bill currently has 61 House cosponsors including 13 Republicans.

Senate-side, Democrats Dick Durbin (IL), Bob Menendez (NJ), Alex Padilla (CA), and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) held a presser with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) on dreamer relief in the lame duck.

"If we can get Senate Republicans to work with us, we will get this done by the end of the year,” said Leader Schumer at the presser. 

Durbin told the crowd gathered in the Senate swamp that he had “four or five” GOP votes in favor of the unspecified immigrant relief measure.

“But we need more!” said the Senate Majority Whip but wouldn’t say which GOP Senators support the measure. 

Durbin also wouldn’t say if Senate Democrats will attached dreamer relief to the remaining ‘must pass’ bills in the lame duck: the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) or omnibus spending package.

I spent the better part of the afternoon asking GOP Senators if they would vote for dreamer relief in the lame duck if Democratic leadership brought it to the floor. Of the ten GOP Senators I asked, only Roy Blunt replied that he would support the measure.

“I think that could pass easily if you'll offer it as cleanly as you possibly can rather than adding other things onto it that are about immigration but not about the dreamers," said the retiring Missouri Republican.

Sixty votes are required to pass dreamer relief in the Senate. You can follow my reporting via this tweet thread which I’m looking to add to throughout the day today. More to follow…

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