Trump says any immigration deal ‘has to include the wall’

President Donald Trump said any immigration deal has ‘got to include the wall,’ a day after he expressed enthusiasm for a legislative solution for 800,000 DACA recipients.

‘We need the wall for security. We need the wall for safety. We need the wall for stopping the drugs from pouring in,’ Trump said at a White House press conference along with the prime minister of Norway.

‘I really believe they’re going to come up with a solution to the DACA problem, which has been going on for a long time, and maybe beyond that immigration as a whole,” Trump said. “But any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it doesn’t work.” 

‘We need the wall for security. We need the wall for safety. We need the wall for stopping the drugs from pouring in,’ President Trump said on Wednesday

Trump’s comments came a day after an extraordinary televised bipartisan immigration meeting, where Trump called for more security at the border but also at times agreed he was for a ‘clean’ bill to help 800,000 DACA recipients.

Democrats and many Republicans are pushing for a solution to DACA situation after Trump ended an Obama era program that provided protections from deportation to people who came here illegally as children.

Trump’s statement was in response to a question to whether the wall on the southern border was a ‘red line’ that had to be included in an immigration deal. 

The question did not explicitly deal with whether the wall had to accompany DACA, although a deal taking shape would combine border security and DACA. 

President Donald Trump listens as Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Washington

President Donald Trump listens as Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Washington

Leading lawmakers said a second broader negotiation would deal with Trump’s call for an end to ‘chain migration’ and ending the visa lottery program, which he ridiculed Tuesday by comparing it to a lottery with balls in a hopper. 

Trump also invoked the wall the Israeli government build to separate its citizens from territory under Palestinian control.

‘You can look at other instances. Look at what happened in Israel. They put up the wall, they solved a very major problem. We need the wall, we have to have the wall for security purposes. Security is number one. And so the answer is, have to have the wall.’   

Trump introduced chaos into immigration negotiations on Tuesday when he said he’d accept whatever compromise that Congress comes up with so long as he gets his border wall.

Trump told a group of more than 20 legislators from both parties at the White House that he could get behind a two-step process that would save the Dreamers from deportation and beef up border security that’s followed by a total immigration overhaul. 

President Donald Trump introduced chaos into immigration negotiations on Tuesday when he said he'd accept whatever compromise that Congress comes up with so long as he gets his border wall 

President Donald Trump introduced chaos into immigration negotiations on Tuesday when he said he’d accept whatever compromise that Congress comes up with so long as he gets his border wall 

‘My positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with,’ Trump at one point said. ‘If they come to me with things I’m not in love with, I’m gonna do it, because I respect them.’ 

The assertion was a 180 from Trump’s earlier stance that immigration legislation must include funding for the border wall and radical changes to the visa process in addition to the safety measures Democrats are pursuing for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

During the televised meeting, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California asked, ‘What about a clean DACA bill now?’  

‘I have no problem. I think that’s basically what Dick [Durbin] is saying. We’re going to come up with DACA. We’re going to do DACA, and then we can start immediately on the phase two, which would be comprehensive,’ the president said.

‘Would you be agreeable to that?’ Feinstein followed up.

‘Yeah, I would like – I would like to do that.’ 

Rep. Kevin McCarthy then reminded the president: ‘Mr. President, you need to be clear though. I think what Senator Feinstein is asking here: When we talk about just DACA, we don’t want to be back here two years later. We have to have security, as the Secretary would tell you.’  

The president also said Tuesday that a ‘clean’ DACA bill to him was Dream Act protections plus border security.

At the end of the Tuesday meeting, Trump was adamant about one thing and one thing only: Congress has to fund his border wall as the first prong of immigration reform.

‘I’d love not to build the wall, but you need the wall,’ Trump said. ‘If you don’t have the wall, you cannot have security.’



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