During President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday, he talked about the four pillars of immigration reform that the White House unveiled last week.
“I'm appreciative of the president's words that he wants to give a path to citizenship to 1.8 million Dreamers, but there's not many plans that will pass the House and the Senate. One of the very few ones is the USA Act," said Tomas Evangelista, a DACA recipient and co-founder of California Dreamers.
The Uniting and Securing America Act was introduced earlier this month by U.S. Representative Will Hurd, R-Texas, and U.S. Representative Pete Aguilar, D-California.
Luis Cespedes, an attorney with Sacramento's Safe Haven Task Force explains what the bipartisan effort includes.
“They've come up with an answer: the USA Act. That simply says, ‘let's grant lawful permanent residency and a path for citizenship for DACA recipients in exchange for border security funding.'"
On Tuesday, President Trump also made a call to end "chain migration."
“Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children,” Trump said.
Cespedes added, "That was absolutely wrong and incorrect. That is not how the quota system has worked. We do have immediate relatives, who are defined as children under 21 and spouses of U.S. Citizens. All the others remain on a quota system."
Barbara Sloan, a member of the Sacramento County Republican Party, tells ABC10 that she believes ending chain migration and eliminating the VISA lottery may be negotiated.
"But building the southern border wall is not negotiable for most Trump supporters who want the border wall,” said Sloan.
As for the future of the Dreamers, Evangelista said he’s still hopeful Congress will pass a Clean Dream Act.
"We need to get something done now. We can't wait until Feb. 8 or March 5. Everyday that we wait, 122 Dreamers lose their status, and if we wait until after March 5, that number will jump into the thousands,” Evangelista added
“President Trump is a very good negotiator and deal maker. I actually have confidence that he will sign an immigration bill in the near future,” Sloan said.