President Donald Trump has issued his demands to Congress for a deal to protect young illegal immigrants known as ‘Dreamers’, insisting that the legislature fund a border wall and overhaul the green-card system to end chain migration.
Trump send the list of demands to Congressional leaders on Sunday, setting the stage for contentious legislative negotiations that Democrats have threatened to derail over his proposals.
Some 800,000 young illegal immigrants had been granted a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which Trump ended last month.
In exchange for extending that protection, Trump is now asking Congress for the drastic reforms, many of which Democrats have said are explicitly off the table.
The proposals will likely assuage immigration hardliners among Trump’s base, many of whom were shocked last month after he appeared to be coming to a compromise with Democrats in Congress to extend DACA without conditions.
Trump has issued his demands to Congress for a deal to protect illegal immigrants known as ‘Dreamers’, insisting that they fund a border wall and end chain migration
‘Without these reforms, illegal immigration and chain migration, which severely and unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers, will continue without end,’ Trump wrote in a letter to House and Senate leaders released by the White House.
Trump had previously said he wanted a DACA deal to include significant money for border security and eventual funding for his border wall. But the priorities released by the White House went far beyond that.
They included a complete overhaul of the green-card system that would limit family-based green cards to spouses and the minor children of US citizens and lawful permanent residents.
The proposal is intended to stem what is known as chain migration, or the flow of extended family members of those holding green cards, who in turn bring their extended family members into the US.
The White House also said it wants to boost fees at border crossings, hire 10,000 more immigration enforcement officers, make it easier to deport gang members and unaccompanied children, and overhaul the asylum system.
And it wants new measures to crack down on ‘sanctuary cities,’ which don’t share information with federal immigration authorities, among other proposals.
Protesters shout slogans against Trump during a demonstration in support of DACA on Thursday in New York. Trump has issued a new set of demands to extend the program
‘These priorities are essential to mitigate the legal and economic consequences of any grants or status to DACA recipients,’ White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters in a Sunday evening conference call.
‘We’re asking that these reforms be included in any legislation concerning the status of DACA recipients.’
But it remained unclear whether the president considers each of the more than a dozen priorities to be non-negotiable or whether the White House sees them more as a starting point for negotiation with members of Congress.
Officials on the call notably declined to say whether the president would veto legislation that did not include each and every one of them.
Trump last month appeared to reach at least the broad outlines of a DACA deal with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in which he would agree to extend DACA protections in exchange for a package of border security measures.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (pictured) said Trump’s list of proposals failed ‘to represent any attempt at compromise’
While Trump made clear that he was not backing down on his wall demand, he and other administration officials said then that they would be comfortable with wall funding coming later, in a separate legislative vehicle.
In a joint statement Sunday night, Pelosi and Schumer said Trump’s list of proposals failed ‘to represent any attempt at compromise.’
‘The Administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans’ they wrote.
‘The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the President was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so.’