Security plan could end up as DACA aid

Trump’s push for a deal may help Dems seeking swift movement on immigration

WASHINGTON — A day after President Donald Trump threatened to end protections for so-called Dreamers, he stunned all sides Wednesday by endorsing a legislative fix that could put the immigrants on the path to legal status.

Trump appeared eager to cut a deal, embracing a plan that has potential to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats. It would combine beefed up border security with more lasting deportation protections for the nearly 800,000 recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Contours of any emerging agreement remain a work in progress. And Trump, who has shown little hesitation about changing his mind, may do so again, especially if the anti-immigration wing of the Republican Party, led by former adviser Steve Bannon, pressures Congress or Trump to reject any agreement that critics will surely label as amnesty.

But the threat of deportation that loomed Tuesday over the immigrants — sparking an eruption of street protests and an outpouring of public support — lifted somewhat.

“Congress, I really believe, wants to take care of this situation,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “I’d like to see something where we have good border security, and we have a great DACA transaction where everybody is happy and now they don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Absent from the president’s remarks was any suggestion of a more substantial immigration overhaul, such as a plan to limit legal migration supported by Bannon, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had promoted such reforms Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, left, makes a point to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. “Today was a good day in a generally very partisan town,” Schumer said. Tuesday when announcing plans to rescind DACA.

Neither was there any mention of border wall funding, an issue that Trump had threatened to shut down the government over just a few weeks earlier. However, wall funding could still be included in an eventual deal.

By seeming to move away from those ideas, Trump blindsided many in his own party and left others uncertain if they can count on the president’s support, whether on immigration or any number of issues now facing Congress.

But it could also make it easier for Trump to craft an agreement on border security with Democrats, whose votes will be needed to overcome Republican opposition in Congress to protecting DACA recipients.

“Today was a good day in a generally very partisan town,” said Senate Minority Chuck Schumer D-N.Y. “We are going to fight hard for DACA. We’re going to fight hard for the DREAM Act. We believe in it. We believe if we keep up the fight, we will succeed.”

Trump’s comments came after a White House meeting Wednesday to discuss the upcoming September agenda in Congress, which included must-pass funding measures and Hurricane Harvey relief.

Republicans left that meeting seething after Trump sided with Democrats to extend government funding and raise the nation’s debt ceiling for only three months. The move created the opening Democrats were seeking for swift action on immigration, and Republicans complained it increased their rivals’ negotiating leverage.

Republicans were already hesitant to embark on an immigration debate without assurance the White House will back them up. Lawmakers will begin midterm election campaigns just as the DACA program begins to phase out in March, according to Trump’s timetable to rescind the program.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said he is sympathetic to DACA recipients, but he wants to bolster border security to prevent new immigrant arrivals.

“Where does that compromise exist? That’s what we’re going to spend the next months figuring out,” he said. “It’s only reasonable and fitting that we also address the root cause of the problem, which is borders that are not sufficiently controlled, while we address this very real and very human problem that’s right in front of us.”

Meanwhile, 15 states and the District of Columbia sued the federal government Wednesday to block Trump’s plan to end DACA.

The lawsuit filed in the New York borough of Brooklyn asked a judge to strike down as unconstitutional Trump’s action.

ALEX WONG/GETTY