
The U.S. Senate began a series of votes on immigration reform Thursday after a war of words erupted between the White House and a bipartisan group of lawmakers over a proposal to help young undocumented immigrants and boost border security.
The White House signaled its intention to veto the measure if it ever got to the president's desk. “That bill is officially, if it wasn’t already obvious, DOA [dead on arrival],” said a senior administration official in a background call with reporters referencing the bipartisan #ImmigrationReform proposed legislation.
In an earlier statement, the White House said the measure “would produce a flood of new illegal immigration” and “undermine the safety and security of American families” by “weakening border security and undermining existing immigration laws.”
Late Wednesday, 16 senators unveiled compromise legislation that would offer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, boost border security funding by $25 billion, and focus immigration enforcement efforts on criminals, threats to national security, and those arriving illegally after the end of June.