‘Dreamers’ is ‘probably dead’
Trump’s tweets cast a cloud over negotiations with Democrats
PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump said Sunday that a program that protects immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children is “probably dead,” casting a cloud over already tenuous negotiations just days before a deadline on a government funding deal that Democrats have tied to immigration.
At issue is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by then-President Barack Obama to shield hundreds of thousands of individuals, known as “Dreamers,” from deportation. Trump, who has taken a hard stance against illegal immigration, announced last year that he will end the program unless Congress comes up with a solution by March.
“DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military,” the president tweeted. “I, as President, want people coming into our Country who are going to help us become strong and great again, people coming in through a system based on MERIT. No more Lotteries! #AMERICA FIRST.”
Republicans and Democrats were already at odds over funding the government, and the negotiations became more complicated after Democrats — whose votes are needed to pass a government funding bill — insisted immigration be included. Government funding expires midnight Friday without a deal in place, and some government functions will begin to go dark.
The president also rejected as insufficient an immigration deal drafted by the bipartisan group of lawmakers. The deal had included a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamers” that would take up to 12 years, as well as $1.6 billion for border security, including Trump’s promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump’s staunchest supporters consider any route to citizenship for the “Dreamers” amnesty for lawbreakers.
The president has said any deal must include funding for the wall as well as changes to make the immigration system a more merit-based structure.
The debate over DACA’s fate came as lawmakers faced questioning about whether Trump is racist.
Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, the first black female Republican in Congress and the daughter of Haitian immigrants, denounced Trump’s comments as racist and called on him to apologize.
Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., who was at Thursday’s Oval Office meeting, insisted Sunday that Trump did not say “shithole” in referring to African countries.
“I am telling you that he did not use that word. And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation,” Perdue said. He said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., were mistaken in indicating earlier that that was the case.
Perdue and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., issued a joint statement Friday saying they “do not recall the President saying those comments specifically.” Cotton said Sunday that he “didn’t hear” the vulgar word used.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who also attended Thursday’s meeting at the Oval Office, said, “I don’t recall that specific phrase being used.”
Nielsen did dispute, however, Trump’s assertion that DACA was “probably dead.”
“I do not believe DACA is dead,” Nielsen said Sunday.” She said that the bipartisan proposal rejected by Trump did not address core security issues facing her department and that Trump’s administration was not interested in “half measures.”
Perdue said that “the potential is there” for a deal to protect the “Dreamers” but that Democrats needed to get serious.