Democratic leaders emerged from a dinner meeting Wednesday night with President Trump to say they’d worked out a new deal to grant permanent protections to young illegal immigrants — without having to accept funding for the president’s border wall.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Mr. Trump agreed to move quickly on a bill that would “enshrine” the protections of the Obama-era DACA program — a tentative deportation amnesty — into law.
Protesters march against the President Trump’s proposed revocation of DACA on September 5, 2017 in New York City, NY. Credit: REUTERS/Steven Yang
The White House, in its own statement, said the dinner covered DACA, but did not mention a final deal.
“We had a very productive meeting at the White House with the President,” said Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer in a joint statement released after the dinner. “The discussion focused on DACA. We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides.”
They did not say what the border security package would include, though Pelosi last week said it could mean more drug-interdiction efforts by the Coast Guard.
It’s also not clear what the DACA-like protections would mean. Democrats say it should include a full pathway to citizenship, while some Republicans counter that it should mean a legal status short of citizenship.
The deal, if it comes to fruition, would be the second major bargain Mr. Trump has cut directly with the two Democratic leaders, undercutting the negotiating position of his own party leaders in Congress.
Advocates for DACA-DREAMERS rally outside Trump Tower in August 2017. Credit: Getty Images/Spencer Platt
Last week he agreed to a large debt and spending bill that deepened the federal debt and sped relief money to Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma victims, adding the $15 billion price tag onto this year’s deepening deficit.
But a deal on the DREAMERs without concrete immigration enforcement steps, could be a tougher sell for the president’s party.
President Trump last week announced he was phasing out Obama’s unconstitutional DACA program, the legally questionable amnesty enacted in 2012 which protects nearly 800,000 young adult illegal immigrants from deportation.
The President said he doubted the program could be defended in court, and he said it was up to Congress to figure out a legislative solution that could withstand scrutiny. He set a six-month phaseout to allow enough time to pass a replacement program.
Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer who had previously called President Trump “cowardly” and “brainless” for the move — somehow now seem eager to work with him as they see in him a willing partner on the issue unlike Obama.
The issue of DACA/DREAMERS has proven to be a difficult one to solve by both Democrat and Republican leaders. Above: DACA campaigners protesting in New York. Credit: dip/USA/REX Shutterstock
The White House said the dinner meeting involved Mr. Schumer, Mrs. Pelosi, Mr. Trump and other administration officials, and called it “constructive.”
“These topics included tax reform, border security, DACA, infrastructure and trade. This is a positive step toward the president’s strong commitment to bipartisan solutions for the issues most important to all Americans,” the White House said — though it didn’t mention any final deals. “The administration looks forward to continuing these conversations with leadership on both sides of the aisle.”
Hours before the dinner, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan had said any deal on DACA had to include serious immigration enforcement measures that would help stop a future flow of illegal immigrants.
“DACA is a symptom of a bigger problem, which is we do not have control of our borders. So while we deal with DACA … we also have to deal with the problem in the first place — securing our borders,” he said. “We’re going to start engaging these conversations with all of our members, all across the Capitol.”
Mr. Trump’s deal could undercut those conversations, though.
Democrats, who have supported stiff border security including hundreds of miles of fencing in the past, have flip-flopped on the issue with Mr. Trump in office, and now say they won’t approve a dime for the wall.
Undocumented immigrants protesting the announcement that rescinds Obama’s controversial DACA program.
Instead of stopping illegal immigration, Mrs. Pelosi last week cast border security as an anti-drug smuggling effort, and said that was the direction of her conversations with Mr. Trump.
“He was talking about drugs coming into the country, and the biggest protector, for us, and that has been the Coast Guard. They have been the biggest interdictor of drugs coming into our country. But it does not include a wall, no,” she said.
The White House had signaled Tuesday that it would accept a DACA deal without needing to have border wall funding. But Marc Short, the president’s top liaison to Congress, said they expect to get wall funding in another bill.
The next likely chance would be in the 2018 spending bills, which are now due in December. The House is poised this week to pass a bill that includes $1.6 billion in money for three initial legs of the Trump border wall, but that will be a tough sell in the Senate, where Democrats have more than enough votes to filibuster.
A Washington Times Report
Further editing by Manyika Review.
