Deal or No Deal? President Trump Says Democrats' Report of an Immigration Deal is Premature

News Staff : Sep 14, 2017
CBN News

"This is a positive step toward the president's strong commitment to bipartisan solutions for the issues most important to all Americans." -White House statement

[CBN News] Democrat leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Charles Schumer claim they struck a deal with President Trump to protect hundreds of thousands of "Dreamers"—children of immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally—while beefing up border security. (Photo: AP/via ABC News.go)

The president disputed their statement, tweeting, "No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote."

But he also tweeted that no one wants to kick the "Dreamers" out of the U.S.

Schumer and Pelosi made the announcement after having dinner in the White House with President Trump. They said the deal would make permanent provisions for President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protected some 800,000 Dreamers from deportation and granted them work permits and access to education.

Last week, Trump told Congress to pass legislation to help the young immigrants before he officially ends the DACA programin six months.

"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," Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement.

The White House responded quickly that there was no agreement to end plans to build the wall.

"While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted.

Earlier Wednesday, Sanders said the president is "committed to the wall. It doesn't have to be tied to DACA, but it's important and he will get it done."

The move appears to be part of a presidential pivot to bipartisanship.

"This is a positive step toward the president's strong commitment to bipartisan solutions for the issues most important to all Americans," a White House statement said.

Last week, Trump cut a deal with Democrats to pass funding for Hurricane Harvey relief and raise the debt limit to keep the government running for the next three months.

"More and more we're trying to work things out together," Trump said Wednesday.

"If you look at some of the greatest legislation ever passed, it was done on a bipartisan manner. And so that's what we're going to give a shot," he said.

The new tack is bound to anger some Republicans and those on the Right who have long questioned Trump's allegiance to conservative ideals.

David French, senior writer for the National Review, tweeted, "It's all fun and games until Trump makes a deal with Schumer on the next SCOTUS nominee."