NATION
Thursday, February 15, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Group of senators reaches immigration deal on Dreamers, wall
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A group of
senators reached a bipartisan agree-
ment Wednesday aimed at balancing
Democrats’ fight to offer citizenship
to young “Dreamer” immigrants
with President Donald Trump’s
demands for billions to build his
coveted border wall with Mexico.
Though the compromise was
announced by 16 senators with
centrist views on the issue and
was winning support from many
Democrats, it faced an uncertain
fate. Leaders were trying to schedule
votes on that plan and three other
immigration proposals for Thursday,
which they hoped would bring the
chamber’s showdown over the
hot-button issue to a close.
While not specifically mentioning
the bipartisan pact, Trump urged
lawmakers to oppose any plan that
doesn’t meet his more stringent
demands, which include curbs on
legal immigration and the abolition
of a visa lottery. The Senate’s No. 2
Republican, John Cornyn of Texas,
warned that lawmakers need to
address Trump’s entire proposal,
saying, “We need to take the presi-
dent seriously.”
There were also qualms among
Democrats. The party’s No. 2 Senate
leader, Richard Durbin of Illinois,
said some Democrats had “serious
issues” with parts of the plan. Those
concerns focused on its spending
for Trump’s wall and its bar against
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa,
walks through a basement passageway at the Capitol amid debates
in the Senate on immigration, in Washington, Wednesday. President
Donald Trump is thanking Grassley for introducing legislation simi-
lar to the immigration framework pushed by the White House.
Dreamers sponsoring their parents
for legal residency.
“We’re not there yet,” Durbin
said of the 60 votes the proposal
would need for approval.
So far, no other proposals from
either side seem able to do that.
Republicans control the chamber
51-49, though Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., has missed the last several
weeks while battling cancer.
The
bipartisan
measure’s
sponsors included eight GOP
senators. That meant just three more
Republicans would be needed for
it to prevail if it is backed by all 47
Democrats and the two independents
who usually support them.
The compromise emerged as
senators spent a third day of debate
largely as they spent the first two
— with the chamber floor mostly
empty. Other than an initial roll call
allowing formal debate to begin,
there have been no other votes while
party leaders talk behind the scenes
about scheduling votes on specific
proposals.
The centrist proposal was
produced by a group led by Sens.
Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe
Manchin, D-W.Va., that spent weeks
seeking middle ground.
It would grant a 10- to 12-year
route to citizenship for 1.8 million
Dreamers, participants said.
That’s the same number Trump
has suggested helping with his own
wider-ranging but more restrictive
proposal. Dreamers are young
immigrants who were brought to the
U.S. illegally as children and still
have no permanent protection from
deportation.
The plan would provide $25
billion over a decade, $2.5 billion
annually, for a wall and other border
security measures, the same total
Trump has requested. It would bar
Dreamers from sponsoring their
parents for citizenship, far narrower
than Trump’s proposal to prevent
all legal immigrants from bringing
parents and siblings to the U.S.
The moderates’ measure does not
alter a lottery that distributes about
55,000 visas annually to people
from diverse countries. Trump has
proposed ending it and redistrib-
uting its visas to other immigrants,
including some who are admitted
based on job skills, not family ties.
“The diversity lottery is kind of
toxic politically because of some
of the things said by the president,”
said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,
a reference to a vulgar description
Trump used for African countries
during a discussion of immigration.
The White House issued a
written statement by Trump urging
senators to back his bill and “oppose
any legislation that fails to fulfill” his
demands. But the statement did not
say Trump would veto a bill that fell
short of them.
A GOP measure tracking
Trump’s proposal and backed by
McConnell has been introduced
and was expected to receive a vote.
Few expect it to attract 60 votes, but
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he
believed the bipartisan proposal
could.
If that happens, Rounds said,
“We’ll allow the president to deter-
mine whether or not it moves in the
direction that he wants.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer,
D-N.Y.,
indirectly
embraced the bipartisan plan,
saying, “Each side has had to give a
great deal, but we are closer than we
have ever been to passing something
in the Senate to help the Dreamers.”
Also in play is a more modest
plan by McCain and Sen. Chris
Coons, D-Del. It would let many
Dreamers qualify for permanent
residency and direct federal agen-
cies to more effectively control
the border by 2020. But it doesn’t
offer a special citizenship pathway
for Dreamers, raise border security
funds or make sweeping changes in
legal immigration rules.
SHOOTING: Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight
Continued from 1A
appeared to be treating the wounded
on sidewalks.
“It is a horrific situation,” said
Robert Runcie, superintendent
of the school district in Parkland,
about an hour’s drive north of
Miami. “It is a horrible day for us.”
The suspect was taken into
custody without a fight in a resi-
dential neighborhood about a mile
away. He had multiple magazines
of ammunition, authorities said.
“It’s catastrophic. There really
are no words,” Broward County
Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.
The attacker used the fire alarm
“so the kids would come pouring
out of the classrooms into the hall,”
Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN.
“And there the carnage began,”
said Nelson, who said he was
briefed by the FBI.
The Florida Democrat said
he did not know if the gunman
used the smoke grenades, but he
assumed that’s why he had a gas
mask on.
Most of the fatalities were
inside the building, though some
victims were found outside. The
dead included a football coach, the
sheriff said.
More than a dozen other people
were wounded and taken to hospi-
tals, doctors said.
Victoria Olvera, a junior at the
school, said Cruz was expelled last
school year because he got into a
fight with his ex-girlfriend’s new
boyfriend. She said he had been
abusive to his girlfriend.
“I think everyone had in their
minds if anybody was going to do
it, it was going to be him,” she said.
Dakota Mutchler, another junior,
said he used to be friends with
Cruz. But he cut off the friendship
as Cruz’s behavior “started progres-
sively getting a little more weird.”
Cruz posted on Instagram about
killing animals and threatened one
of Mutchler’s friends, he said.
He remembered that Cruz had a
pellet gun and did target practice in
his backyard.
Student Daniel Huerfano said he
recognized Cruz from an Instagram
photo in which Cruz had posed
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP
Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on
Wednesday after a shooter opened fire on the campus.
AP Photo/Joel Auerbach
Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday.
with a gun in front of his face.
Cruz “was that weird kid that
you see ... like a loner,” he said.
Freshman Max Charles was in
class when he heard five gunshots.
“We were in the corner, away
from the windows,” he said. “The
teacher locked the door and turned
off the light. I thought maybe I
could die or something.”
As he was leaving the building,
he saw four dead students and
one dead teacher. He said he was
relieved when he finally found his
mother.
“I was happy that I was alive,”
Max said. “She was crying when
she saw me.”
About an hour after the attack,
Michael Nembhard was sitting in
his garage on a cul-de-sac when
he saw a young man in a burgundy
shirt walking down the street. In an
instant, a police cruiser pulled up,
and officers jumped out with guns
drawn.
“All I heard was ‘Get on the
ground! Get on the ground!’”
Nembhard said. He said the man
did as he was told.
The day started normally at the
school, which had a morning fire
drill. Students were in class around
2:30 p.m. when another alarm
sounded.
Junior Noah Parness said he
and the other students calmly went
outside to their fire-drill areas when
he suddenly heard popping sounds.
“We saw a bunch of teachers
running down the stairway, and
then everybody shifted and broke
into a sprint,” Parness said. “I
hopped a fence.”
Beth Feingold said her daughter,
Brittani, sent a text that said,
“We’re on code red. I’m fine,” but
sent another text shortly afterward
saying, “Mom, I’m so scared.” She
was later able to escape.
Students heard loud bangs as
the shooter fired. Many of them
hid under desks or in closets and
barricaded doors.
Television footage showed
students leaving in a single-file line
with their hands over their heads
as officers urged them to evacuate
quickly.
The scene was reminiscent
of the Newtown attack, which
shocked even a country numbed by
the regularity of school shootings.
The Dec. 14, 2012, assault at Sandy
Hook Elementary School killed 26
people — 20 first-graders and six
staff members.
The 20-year-old Connecticut
gunman, who also fatally shot
his mother in her bed, then killed
himself.
When Caesar Figueroa got to
the Florida school to check on his
16-year-old daughter, he saw heli-
copters and police officers wielding
guns.
“It was crazy and my daughter
wasn’t answering her phone.” She
finally texted him that she was
inside a closet with friends.
Len Murray’s 17-year-old son,
a junior at the school, sent his
parents a chilling text: “Mom and
Dad, there have been shots fired on
campus at school. There are police
sirens outside. I’m in the audito-
rium and the doors are locked.”
A few minutes later, he texted
again, “I’m fine.”
Murray said he raced to the
school only to be stopped by
authorities under a highway
overpass within view of the school
buildings. He said he told his son
to save his battery and stop texting.
The boy’s mother told him to turn
off his ringer.
Murray said he’s had just one
thought running through his mind
since his son’s text: “All I keep
thinking about is when I dropped
him off this morning. I usually
say, ‘I love you,’ and I didn’t this
morning. He’s 17, he’s at that age.
And I didn’t say it this morning,
and I’m just kicking myself right
now over and over and over.”
The school was to be closed for
the rest of the week.
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