Instead of going big, Trump should go small

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s tweet promising “NO MORE DACA DEAL” was an Easter gift to Democrats, letting them off the hook for their failure to seriously negotiate an immigration agreement. Rather than pulling the plug on any Deferred Action for Childhood

Arrivals talks, Trump should offer Democrats a simple deal: He would agree to codification of President Barack

Obama’s DACA action in exchange for funding for the president’s border wall.

Earlier this year, Trump extended

Democrats a remarkable offer: Instead of simply granting legal status to current DACA recipients, he would agree to a path to citizenship for nearly 2 million “dreamers” — those who were brought to the United States as children through no fault of their own — if Democrats would agree to fund his border wall, limit chain migration and get rid of the visa lottery system. It was a bold move, one that earned him scorn from many in his own base. Democrats should have seized this opportunity. Instead, they rejected it and refused to make a serious counteroffer. Their actions showed they care more about mobilizing voters in 2018 with faux outrage than they do about helping actual dreamers become American citizens.

Trump tried going big, and it didn’t work. Now he should go small. Obama’s executive action on DACA was far more limited than what Trump proposed for dreamers, offering no path to citizenship or even permanent legal residency. It simply shielded the dreamers from deportation, allowing them to remain in the United States to work and study. But Obama’s action was arguably unlawful because it bypassed Congress — the same reason the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA, program was declared unlawful by the courts. Codifying the order would indefinitely remove the threat of deportation for DACA recipients. It would get Trump the wall funding he so desperately wants. And it would save making a deal to provide a path to citizenship in exchange for reforms to our legal immigration system for another day.

Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (S.D.) has legis-