‘I will let Dreamers stay 3 years if I get my wall’
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Saturday proposed three-year protection from deportation for some undocumented immigrants brought to the country as minors, known as the Dreamers, and other migrants impacted by war and natural disasters.
In exchange for temporary relief, Trump demanded $5.7billion (R78.9bn) in funding for a border wall with Mexico, a request the speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, rejected as a “nonstarter”.
Trump’s announcement came as hundreds of thousands of federal employees continue to work without pay in the longest government shutdown in US history.
“As a candidate for president I promised I would fix this crisis and I intend to fix this crisis one way or the other,” Trump said. He added that his proposal was meant to “break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis on the southern border”.
Democrats have long rallied to provide a permanent pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of qualifying undocumented immigrants brought to the country before the age of 16, known as the Dreamers.
In a statement, the White House said Trump’s plan would cover 700 000 “illegal immigrants brought here by their parents at a young age”.
Trump also requested funding for more law enforcement personnel along the border, immigration judges, drug detection technology and humanitarian assistance on the border.
Before the shutdown, the opposition had agreed to provide $25bn in funding for Trump’s wall in exchange for a pathway to citizenship.
The president says the wall is necessary to stop the flow of drugs, human trafficking and illegal immigration into the country.
Democrats have rejected the wall as ineffective and a waste of taxpayer money, while Pelosi has called the wall “immoral”.
Although the president had asserted ahead of the current shutdown crisis that he would be proud to “own” such a shutdown, Trump has in recent weeks been attempting to blame the shutdown on the Democrats, especially targeting Pelosi.
Trump and Pelosi have traded barbs in the acrimonious dispute, with Pelosi calling on Trump to delay his State of the Union speech and Trump cancelling Pelosi’s planned use of a government aircraft for a foreign trip.
Top Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who has previously criticised Trump, called on Democrats to support the president’s proposal.