‘Dreamer’ deal roils status quo
WASHINGTON — The astonishing new triumvirate of President Trump and Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer may be as fleeting as a tweet, but as of Thursday, their deal-making on immigration bestowed once-powerless Democrats with newfound clout and threw the president’s own Republican Party on the defensive.
Over Chinese food at the White House on Wednesday night, the three had agreed to find a way to protect the socalled Dreamers, the estimated
690,000 immigrants who were brought into the U.S. by their parents or entered the country without papers as teenagers.
On Thursday, Trump threw conservative hardliners on immigration into an uproar by confirming that a deal could emerge without concessions for his proposed wall on the border with Mexico.
He would negotiate with Democrats on the Dreamers, he said, and, “The wall will come later. If Republicans don’t do more, I’m going to have to get a little help from the Democrats.”
The new alliance has put a new spotlight on Pelosi. Just a week ago, Trump agreed with her and Schumer, the Senate minority leader from New York, to a deal to extend the debt ceiling, shocking the president’s GOP allies on Capitol Hill.
For the first time in months, reporters on Thursday filled the room for her weekly press conference, where an extra bank of television cameras lined one wall, and the long-serving Democratic House leader from San Francisco could hardly be heard over the shutter clicks.
Asked point blank if she trusted Trump, Pelosi said she did insofar as she believes the president is “sincere” in wanting to protect the Dreamers. But she quickly added that negotiations with Trump are “a one-by-one thing” contingent on the issue, not some new epoch in relations with a president whose time in office she and her party view as a historic catastrophe.
“There’s plenty of work to be done,” Pelosi said. “The plan is to find common ground.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for his part, insisted that no “deal” on immigration had been consummated and that Republicans remain relevant.
“The president understands he’s going to have to work with the congressional majorities,” Ryan said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tersely suggested he would leave the writing of any Dreamer legislation to the White House.
Since Newt Gingrich became House speaker in 1994, Republicans have spurned bipartisan lawmaking, insisting that all significant legislation pass only with a majority of Republican votes. That approach may be soon be tested.
Trump’s roots in the Republican Party are shallow, and his relations with Ryan and McConnell rocky at best. When Trump took office in January, Ryan and McConnell assumed they would dictate the novice president’s agenda. But the debacle of their failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act infuriated Trump, leaving him bereft of any significant legislative achievement nine months into what historically has been a president’s most productive year in office.
Democrats, while powerless to move legislation on their own, offer an obvious pool for dealmaking with their 194 votes in the House and 48 in the Senate.
“There’s some reason to think this would have been a good strategy for Trump from the start,” Eric Schickler, a UC Berkeley political science professor, said of Trump’s outreach to Democrats. “Partly where it’s coming from is frustration that just working with Republican leaders isn’t getting him very far.”
Trump’s deal last week with Pelosi and Schumer on the debt ceiling “led to some good press for him,” Schickler said. “He’s not somebody with long ties to the Republican Party; it’s kind of a marriage of convenience.”
Some House Democrats appeared concerned that the deal-making could go too far, with the Hispanic Caucus in particular riled about the idea of tying Dreamers to tougher border security, something Pelosi and Schumer said is on the table for negotiation.
Linda Sanchez, D-Whittier (Los Angeles County), said she trusted Trump “not as far as I can spit.” She said Dreamers should not be linked with border security and insisted that the Hispanic Caucus should be in the negotiating room.
“We always need to be careful with Trump,” Sanchez said. “But having said that, I think you have to continue the discussions. I don’t think you get anywhere productive if you just refuse to talk about something.”
After coming into office with a hard-right agenda that delighted conservatives, Trump’s abrupt pivot has infuriated conservative talk show hosts. It sparked a new Twitter hashtag, “#AmnestyDon.” Conservative pundit Ann Coulter tweeted, “At this point, who DOESN’T want Trump impeached?” Radio host Rush Limbaugh questioned whether Trump knew who put him in office.
Others weren’t quite as alarmed. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, dismissed the Chinese dinner talks as Trump “doing what he does best, which is talk to everyone.”
Rank-and-file Democrats in Congress said they saw no reason not to seize an opportunity when it’s presented.
“The one thing Democrats can provide is a unified bloc of votes in the Congress,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael. “I wouldn’t hold your breath for major breakthroughs, but if we can get a few of these things done on our terms, we’re crazy not to do it.”