Tennessee state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, has challenged Democratic U.S. Reps. Steve Cohen and Jim Cooper to support President Donald Trump’s proposed immigration plan, which includes a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million “Dreamers” brought to the U.S. as children.
“It’s time for those who constantly demand protections for children to actually vote the same way and support Trump’s immigration proposal,” Gardenhire said in a news release Monday. As a state senator, he has worked unsuccessfully to get Dreamers – undocumented immigrants covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – the right to pay in-state tuition at Tennessee colleges and universities.
Trump has offered a plan that would protect the Dreamers in exchange for $25 million for his border wall and border security, a reduction in family-based immigration and elimination of the visa lottery program.
“A very few of us have been willing to address the reality that these kids brought here by their parents need to be productive, not wards of the state, by allowing them to pay in-state tuition to encourage education, not entitlement,” Gardenhire said in the release.
“The calls for bipartisanship and solving problems ring pretty hollow from those who are given exactly what they want with this pathway to citizenship but still refuse to support a proposal,” he said.
“So, Congressman Cohen and Congressman Cooper, do you represent Tennessee or [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi? Tennesseans are tired of politicians who want to have an opportunity to solve a problem but love to keep the crisis alive for votes. Let’s get behind this proposal and do the right thing,” Gardenhire said.
Cooper and Cohen did not respond immediately Monday. When Trump announced in September he was ending the Obama-era program, Cohen called it “heartless, illogical and un-American” and Cooper said he hopes it can be saved.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a statement Monday the Dreamers “should not be held hostage to President Trump’s crusade to tear families apart and waste billions of American tax dollars on an ineffective wall,” according to CNN.
“The White House claims to be compromising because the President now agrees with the overwhelming majority of Americans that Dreamers should have a pathway to citizenship,” Durbin continued.”But his plan would put the administration’s entire hardline immigration agenda – including massive cuts to legal immigration – on the backs of these young people.”
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.