President Trump issued a warning to Democrats – there will be no “fix” of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program without funding for a southern border wall.
“The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!” stated Trump in an early Friday morning tweet.
With Congress gearing up to return to business in January, the president emerged from his Mar-a-Lago resort to establish the parameters for the upcoming debate on DACA.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Trump said immigration was an area where a “bipartisan” deal could be reached and “DACA in particular.”
But not without the wall, an end to chain migration and the Diversity Visa Lottery, which grants visas to citizens of nations with lower levels of immigration into the U.S.
“Look, I wouldn’t do a DACA plan without a wall. Because we need it,” he said. “We have to get rid of chainlike immigration, we have to get rid of the chain.”
Since he announced in September his plans to end DACA, the president has consistently asserted that the border wall was non-negotiable. In October, Trump told reporters that while he would “love” to reach agreement on DACA but “we have to get something very substantial for it, including the wall.”
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in December to discuss how to make a deal. Although the deadline to end the program is March 5, some senators have raised the prospect that Trump could extend it beyond that date.
In the interview, Trump expressed his belief that Democrats agree getting rid of the visa lottery and also on chain migration.
Regardless of whether the DACA deadline is extended, immigration will be front and center as government funding expires on January 19.
Congressional Democrats again will be under pressure from open border activists to either secure amnesty for the 800,000 DACA beneficiaries or block legislation to fund the government.
Credo Mobile and Democracy For America (DFA) criticized both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) for backing down from threats to shutter the government.
“For months, Democratic leaders insisted they would use their leverage in year-end spending bill negotiations to protect Dreamers and reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, but at the end of the day they let us down and refused to even put up a fight,” CREDO political director Murshed Zaheed said in a statement to The Hill.
The open borders group, FWD.US has been rallying supporters to call Capitol Hill to lay out what they say is a “clear choice.
“A vote for a government spending bill without protections for Dreamers is a vote to deport 800,000 Dreamers,” the group says.
When the House and Senate reconvene in January, they will be under pressure from all sides to address a host of issues from long-term military spending to the debt ceiling and fixes to health care reform. It is certain immigration will be addressed early on but the negotiators remain in the shadows and the American public in the dark about the details.
1 Comment
I work for a Health Department and believe me they are getting free everything! They come across the border illegally and if they aren’t already pregnant they soon get that way. They come in to the Health Dept because they know they get Emergency Medicaid for 60 days! During those 60 days they get Free medical including ultrasounds strictly to determine the sex. They get Dental coverage and medications all at no cost to them. They are immediately put on Wic and food stamps because they claim they have no income. And yet they have coach purses, I phones and NEW cars! After the 60 days the Medicaid medical ends but the free stuff continues. Because there is no insurance they receive prenatal care through Health Department until they are 36 weeks. They are then referred out to a contracted OBGYN office through delivery. The fees are paid by the Health Department which comes from OUR tax dollars. When the baby is born it is put on Medicaid permanently. The mom and baby return back to Health Department for WIC. Mom gets it for six more months and child until Five years old. Mom continues to get free Pap smears, mammograms and free birth control which they decline because they start the whole cycle again. I am not exaggerating when I say they literally are laughing at the USA. DACA can not be allowed to continue. Our Country is on its way back from the ruins of Obama and DACA! Stay strong Trump! This is one of the reasons we chose you. Illegal immigration needs to go! I have so many more stories of how we are getting screwed by the illegals! I need to ad to this by saying people get denied help who are USA born citizens simply because they make a few dollars to much. That is inexcusable!
From a HD Worker