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Tillis: Immigration Bill Would Protect Most DACA Recipients

Thom Tillis speaking
thomtillis.com
/
Campaign Photo, file

U.S. Senator Thom Tillis is proposing an immigration policy that would give many DACA recipients a path to citizenship.

The Republican from North Carolina says the bill gives protected status in five-year segments for people who illegally came to the United States with their families as children.
 
Tillis says the proposal lays out three main ways to qualify. Beneficiaries would have to maintain gainful employment, work toward a post-secondary degree, or serve in the military.  
 
Applicants who meet those requirements would get Conditional Permanent Residence, or CPR.
 
“And once the participants have maintained CPR for over 10 years and have proven they are productive, law-abiding members of society, they would be eligible to apply for a Green Card,” he said.
 
Applicants would then have to keep a green card for five more years before they could apply for full citizenship. Tillis says the measure would cover most of the people who now qualify for the program known as DACA, which the Trump Administration rescinded earlier this month.
 
 Tillis says the high bar for eligibility is meant to deter future illegal immigration.

“We're trying to do everything that we can to say, 'Think this through. Come across the border legally, go through the process legally to get a green card, and then have all the rights and privileges that come with having done it legally from the beginning point,'” he said.
 

Will Michaels is WUNC's Weekend Host and Reporter.
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