DACA Fix In The Works Pt 2
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. As the end of 2017 draws near, lawmakers in the nation's capital are hustling to wrap up some important legislation regarding changes to the DACA program. Representative Dan Newhouse says giving people who were born her or brought to this country by their parents some kind of certainty in their lives is just one issue on a list of immigration reforms in the works ...DAN NEWHOUSE ... "At the same time that we're working on this, we're also working on ways that we can improve and reform the H-2A agricultural labor program that we have. And so, I think probably, in the bigger picture, having the spotlight on DACA puts it on all the immigration issues. And so, there may be an opportunity in this, because of the DACA issue, for us to make progress on all the immigration issues. That's my hope!"
Asked if he still expects to get the DACA issue resolved by year end, he says ...
DAN NEWHOUSE ... "Time is not our friend. We do not have many legislative days before the end of the year. I want to make sure we get this done obviously, but I want to make sure that legislative solution also is done correctly.
And so, if we can't get it done by the end of the year we'll continue to work to get it done just as soon as we possibly can."
Newhouse says there are roughly 17,000 DACA recipients in Washington state and every day without a legislative solution brings more doubts about their future. He says they should not be used as a political football and deserve answers now.