Sen. Jeff Flake plans to introduce a bill Thursday that he says will provide a solution for the "Dreamers" affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while providing border security and funding for President Donald Trump's call for a wall at the Mexican border.
"We need better barriers in certain places, we need sensors, we need border roads, we need cameras," the Arizona senator told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"The president wants that. We all want that."
"We also want a solution to the DACA kids, so-called dreamers who had been here and for all intents and purposes, they consider themselves Americans," said Flake. "They don't know any other country. So if we can have a solution on border security at the same time, we fix the DACA issue, that's a win-win for all of us."
Flake's proposal, the Border Security and Deferred Action Recipient Relief Act, plans $1.6 billion for border fortification, while allowing dreamers to receive conditional resident status for 10 years, as long as they meet certain employment or education terms. Eventually, they could receive a green card or even U.S. citizenship.
The wall funding would include physical walls in some places, or sensors in others, depending in the location on the border.
"I think it's the best way to thread the needle to get what the president has wanted and what he is advocating," Flake, noting that he is trying to get the measure through by the end of the year.
Flake also Thursday discussed the ongoing controversy over bump stocks, the device used to make a semi-automatic weapon act almost as an automatic, after it was revealed that Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock had used the items to carry out his attack.
"I don't think anybody heard of a bump stock or most people have not," said Flake. "I certainly haven't until just a couple of days ago. But anybody who heard the audio or saw video and heard what that sounded like, you thought that's an automatic weapon."
Automatic weapons have been illegal since the 1930s, said Flake, and he expects some hearings will be held on the matter of bump stocks and other gun issues.
"We are going to learn more in the coming days and weeks and months about this technology being able to mechanically increase the rate of fire through a bump stock or a crank," said Flake. "I understand there are other methods as well."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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