Senators offer short-term DACA fix

WASHINGTON—A bipartisan pair of senators on Tuesday introduced legislation to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program from expiring and to fund border security projects over the next three years. The bill, from Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., provides $7.6 billion in funding for new border security measures, good for the White House’s first three years of proposed projects, and gives the nearly 700,000 DACA recipients a three-year extension. “I’ll be the first to admit this ‘three-for-three’ approach is far from a perfect solution, but it would provide a temporary fix by beginning the process of improving border security and ensuring DACA recipients will not face potential deportation,” Flake said in a statement. President Donald Trump announced in September that on March 5 he would end the DACA protection for immigrants who entered the country illegally as minors. But two federal court rulings have thrown that timeline into limbo. The Senate failed to approve an immigration proposal earlier this month, but lawmakers aim to vote on the issue again as Congress confronts a must-pass spending deadline of March 24.