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Sinema's new framework deal could help DACA recipients. It could also extend Title 42

This week, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema floated the framework for a piece of legislation that seeks to provide a pathway to citizenship for some 2 million undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children — also known as "Dreamers." But border advocates and some lawmakers are wary of the deal because it could also extend Title 42.

The pandemic-era border restriction has a court-mandated end date of Dec.  21. But Sinema’s framework, drafted with Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, aims to change that.

Though the details are still in flux, the Washington Post reports the framework pairs a dreamer pathway to citizenship with a border security package that could include a multibillion-dollar funding increase for Border Patrol and an extension of Title 42. It also calls for an overhaul of the U.S. asylum system.

"I'm not shocked by their proposal, because historically they have used the carrot of DACA legalization ... as a way to convince the public, including the immigrant community that does have legal status in the U.S., to sell out their brothers and sisters who are waiting, dying at the border to seek asylum," said Nicole Elizabeth Ramos, director of Al Otro Lado's Border Rights Project. "We shouldn’t be bargaining the lives of immigrants, the idea that, 'these are the immigrants we deem are valuable and worthy of saving, and these are the immigrants that we feel comfortable tossing into the garbage and allowing to die on our doorstep."

Asylum seekers are, by and large, blocked from seeking protection at the border under Title 42, despite international and U.S. laws that require it. Like a handful of other aid groups, Ramos and her team have helped hundreds of asylum seekers fill out forms asking for exemptions to the protocol, which she says is their only functional chance to enter the U.S. and apply for asylum. The average wait time for those hoping to apply is around a year.

Earlier this year, the advocacy group Human Rights First said it had tracked more than 10,000 reports of murder, kidnapping and other violent attacks on migrants stuck in Mexico or expelled there under Title 42. In the absence of a real border asylum process, Ramos says migrants are forced to pay for smugglers or could fall victim to other scams. That’s why she hopes Congress looks beyond border rhetoric and rejects any deal that keeps Title 42 in place. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the state Sen. Thom Tillis represents.

Alisa Reznick is a senior field correspondent covering stories across southern Arizona and the borderlands for the Tucson bureau of KJZZ's Fronteras Desk.