Trump declares he wants immigration ‘bill of love’
But border wall funding still hangs over talks
WASHINGTON – President Trump promised Tuesday to sign what he called a “bill of love” to extend protections to 800,000 immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children — if Congress can work out the details.
“You folks are going to have to come up with a solution,” Trump told 25 lawmakers in a remarkable televised ne- gotiation at the White House. “And if you do, I’m going to sign that solution.”
But funding for a wall along the border with Mexico remains a sticking point: Trump insisted that border security remain a part of any deal.
Lawmakers are under a March 5 deadline — imposed by Trump — to come up with a legal fix to the Obamaera Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA, as it’s known, is now the main stumbling block to a wide range of other Trump administration immigration priorities.
Conservative Republicans in the House want to link DACA to Trump’s request for $18 billion for a border wall.
“You folks (in Congress) are going to have to come up with a solution. And if you do, I will sign that solution.” President Trump
That would give immigration talks even more urgency, because the spending bill must pass by Jan. 19 to prevent a government shutdown.
So Trump and his top advisers sat down Tuesday with 25 members of Congress — 16 senators and nine representatives, 15 Republicans and 10 Democrats. And in an unusual move, the White House opened nearly an hour of the meeting to the media.
The Republicans came with a common talking point: Congress needs a permanent fix to immigration enforcement or else have to deal with the question again. Democrats said the urgency of saving DREAMers from deportation meant extending the program must take priority.
DREAMers are the children of immigrants who remained in the country illegally, growing up as Americans but without legal status. Obama’s solution was to use his enforcement discretion to give up to 800,000 DREAMers a quasi-legal status, but the Trump administration has said that Obama exceeded his authority and that any fix must come from Congress.
Trump said repeatedly Tuesday that he would sign any bill Congress sends him to make the program legal. But he later clarified that such a bill also must include border security measures, including a border wall.
“A clean DACA bill, to me, is a DACA bill where we take care of the 800,000 people,” he said. “We take care of them and we also take care of security. That’s very important.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, expressed optimism that such a deal could get done.
As of March 5, 1,000 people a day will lose their temporary status, Durbin said. “Lives are hanging in the balance,” he told Trump.
But Republicans also want two other issues on the table: elimination of the diversity visa lottery program and family-based “chain migration.”
“Yes, we’ve got to do DACA, and I agree with you 100%,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “But if we do not do something with the security, if we do not do something with the chain migration, we are fooling each other that we solved the problem.”
Tuesday’s meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House was scheduled to be closed to reporters but opened up on short notice. After 55 minutes, Trump signaled aides to usher reporters out of the room. “Thank you all very much,” he said. “I hope we gave you enough material. This should cover you for about two weeks.”