White House: US Senate Immigration Bill 'Ignores Lessons of 9/11'

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Immigration legislation backed by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and several Republican cosponsors threatens the US with terrorist attacks because it ignores the lessons of September 11, 2001, a senior White House official told reporters in a telephone conference call on Thursday.

"It completely ignores the lessons of 9/11," the official said on condition of anonymity. "Under the Schumer-Rounds-Collins plan those individuals [terrorists] would not have been a priority for removal so … it really puts us at a much greater risk of terrorism."

The immigration measure is named for its leading sponsors, Schumer and Republican Senators Mike Rounds and Susan Collins. It is one of four rival bills on immigration that the Senate is considering.

The White House official said the bill would legalize up to 10 million illegal aliens, leave chain migration intact, and maintain loopholes that force officials to release criminal aliens from detention.

“The president put out a veto threat on the Schumer-Rounds-Collins proposal and so that bill is officially — if it weren’t already obvious — DOA [Dead on Arrival],” the official said.

The Trump administration is willing to legalize most people who entered the country as children, including more than 1 million people not currently protected under the Obama-administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the official said.

In exchange, conditions imposed earlier by President Donald Trump would limit family migration to the US, end the nation’s immigration lottery and immediately fund a wall on the Mexican border.