President Trump issued a warning to Democrats \u2013 there will be no \u201cfix\u201d of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program without funding for a southern border wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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!\u201d stated Trump in an early Friday morning tweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In a wide-ranging interview<\/a> with The New York Times<\/em>, Trump said immigration was an area where a \u201cbipartisan\u201d deal could be reached and \u201cDACA in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, I wouldn\u2019t do a DACA plan without a wall. Because we need it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to get rid of chainlike immigration, we have to get rid of the chain.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a> that while he would \u201clove\u201d to reach agreement on DACA but \u201cwe have to get something very substantial for it, including the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n White House Chief of Staff John Kelly met<\/a> 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<\/a> that Trump could extend it beyond that date.<\/p>\n In the interview, Trump expressed his belief that Democrats agree getting rid of the visa lottery and also on chain migration.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether the DACA deadline is extended, immigration will be front and center as government funding expires on January 19.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Credo Mobile and Democracy For America (DFA) criticized both House Minority Leader Nancy\u00a0Pelosi (D-Calif.)\u00a0and Senate Minority Leader\u00a0Charles Schumer\u00a0(D-N.Y.) for backing down from threats to shutter the government.<\/p>\n \u201cFor months, Democratic leaders insisted they would use their leverage in year-end spending bill negotiations to protect Dreamers and reauthorize the Children\u2019s 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\u00a0Murshed Zaheed said in a statement<\/a> to The Hill<\/em>.<\/p>\n