AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump surrendered his most powerful political tool for filling his the campaign-winning promise of a border wall, by agreeing to extend the DACA amnesty for at least 800,000 illegal immigrants in exchange for an unexplained “package of border security” improvements, according to Democratic and media reports.
The amnesty-for-no-wall deal was announced by the Democratic winners, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in a late night statement.
We had a very productive meeting at the White House with the President. The discussion focused on DACA. We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides.
A White House statement said:
President Donald Trump had a constructive working dinner with Senate and House Minority Leaders, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi as well as Administration officials to discuss policy and legislative priorities. These topics included tax reform, border security, DACA, infrastructure and trade. This is a positive step toward the President’s strong commitment to bipartisan solutions for the issues most important to all Americans. The Administration looks forward to continuing these conversations with leadership on both sides of the aisle.
Trump’s press aide released a subsequent statement, which suggested the president would continue to plead with Democrats for wall funding, even though numerous top Democrats have repeatedly insisted they will never fund the promised border wall.
While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to.
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) September 14, 2017
Marc Short, Trump’s congressional aide who recently suggested Trump trade the DACA amnesty for Democratic support of a tax bill, denied the Democrats’ claim of an amnesty-for-no-wall deal.
WH leg affairs director Marc Short calls Dems’ DACA statement “misleading,” says no deal on DACA or border wall $$ was reached tonight.
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) September 14, 2017
Pro-American immigration reformers had hoped that Trump would swap a revived DACA amnesty for his popular goals, such as the merit-immigration RAISE Act, new rules against hiring illegals and a border wall. Instead, they and Trump got only a vague promise of border security improvements, and a Democratic refusal to fund his wall. Rep Steve King said the deal — if true — will destroy Trump’s coalition.
@RealDonaldTrump If AP is correct, Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible. https://t.co/uJjxk6uX5g
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) September 14, 2017
The Democratic statement did not describe the scale of the promised DACA amnesty, which could reach 4 million illegals and tempory residents, and deliver them to voting booths starting 2022.
