Sen. Tom Cotton on Tuesday said it was "undisputable" that President Donald Trump did a favor for every "Dreamer" by staving off legal action on a program that's unlawful, the Arkansas Republican told Hugh Hewitt.
Ten state attorneys general were going to go to court over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program if Trump hadn't rescinded the Obama-era initiative, one that Cotton agreed was unconstitutional.
"President [Barack] Obama created this mess. And it's landed in President Trump's lap and our lap in the Congress," Cotton said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show."
"I don't know if any capable and forthright lawyer who argues that the administration can defend this proposition in court," Cotton told the conservative radio host. "President Trump is trying to clean it up through legal action."
Cotton said he's willing to work with Democrats on a way to continue the protections for Dreamers as long as they come to the table willing to work with him and Republicans on immigration reform.
"I certainly hope the Democrats will focus on the art of the possible here, what kind of agreement we can reach to achieve the president's own stated goals," Cotton told Hewitt. "He has said repeatedly that he wants to 'take care' of the DACA recipients. I have no objection to that. But we have to recognize there are going to be two negative consequences of that action.
"One, we create a new opportunity for citizenship through chain migration for their parents, the very people who violated the law by bringing them here as children in the first place. And two, we encourage other people around the world to bring their children here illegally. So we have to do something to stop chain migration," Cotton told Hewitt.
Hewitt and Sen. David Perdue, R-Georgia, introduced merit-based immigration reform in February that surfaced again last month when Trump threw his weight behind it.
"That's a very simple, logically-coherent legislative package. It's not comprehensive reform. … It's not trying to blow ocean," Cotton told Hewitt. "I'm not going to support just a blanket amnesty with nothing to control the consequences of it."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.