Donald Trump said he was “fairly close” to a deal with Democrats to protect so-called “Dreamers”, young immigrants who were brought illegally to the US as children.
Seeming to confirm the outlines of the accord described by Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday night, Trump told reporters: “We’re working on a plan for Daca,” Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program which he cancelled last week.
That deal would include “massive border security”, he said, but crucially “the wall will come later”.
Asked whether he favored an “amnesty” for the nearly 800,000 young immigrants in the program, Trump shouted back: “The word is Daca.”
He claimed he had spoken to congressional Republican leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and they were both “on board”.
Trump’s comments followed the Democrats’ announcement on Wednesday nightthat they had agreed with the Republican president on a plan to protect the Dreamers.
In four tweets this morning, Trump echoed details of the agreement he was reported to have reached with Democrats the night before, while denying it had been finalized.
“No deal was made last night,” he said, before explaining why Dreamers should be protected and referencing increased border security.
Schumer and Pelosi said Wednesday night they had reached an agreement with Trump which included increased border security – excluding additions to the border wall between the US and Mexico.
“We agreed that the president would support enshrining Daca protections into law, and encourage the House and Senate to act,” they said.In a joint statement on Thursday morning, the two Democrats said Trump’s tweets were “not inconsistent with the agreement reached last night”.
“What remains to be negotiated are the details of border security, with a mutual goal of finalizing all details as soon as possible. While both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this agreement, the president made clear he intends to pursue it at a later time, and we made clear we would continue to oppose it.”
They added that possible border-security proposals discussed included “new technology, drones, air support, sensor equipment, rebuilding roads along the border and the bipartisan McCaul-Thompson bill”, an immigration bill.
Although Trump seemed to confirm on Thursday that the wall had been excluded from the discussions, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the opposite on Wednesday night, tweeting: “While Daca and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to.” The comment was sent out to journalists again via the White House reporting pool just before 7am on Thursday morning.
Trump’s Thursday morning tweets mirrored the Democrats’ description of the agreement but also connected a deal on Dreamers to border security, keeping it separate from the issue of the wall, his signature and hugely controversial campaign promise.
“Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent,” Trump said.
Nine minutes later, he said the wall “will continue to be built” – though his administration has not begun construction on the wall and Congress has not approved the $1.6bn Trump requested to fund the project.
In yet another comment that suggested support for the Democrats’ plan, sent shortly after his wall claim, Trump defended Dreamers.
“Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!” he said.
Nine days earlier, his administration announced the end to the program which offered temporary protection for the nearly 800,000 Dreamers.
“They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own – brought in by parents at young age,” Trump continued, before again mirroring the Democrats’ description of the agreement: “Plus BIG border security”.
Daca has been under threat since Trump assumed office, though the program is popular with both political parties.
Its end was celebrated by the most staunch immigration opponents, who expressed disappointment with Trump after his defense of the Dreamers on Thursday.
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter tweeted: “At this point, who DOESN’T want Trump impeached?”The hard-right Breitbart website, run by Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, rain the critical headline “Amnesty Don.”
It was Trump who extended Wednesday night’s invitation to Schumer and Pelosi, according to a source familiar with the meeting, to follow up on their discussion last week of the numerous fiscal deadlines facing Congress.
Trump, a businessman whose book was entitled The Art of the Deal, ruffled feathers last week when, meeting leaders from both parties in the Oval Office, he sided with Schumer and Pelosi on a three-month extension to the debt ceiling – something Ryan had dismissed as “ridiculous” only hours earlier.
Then, on Air Force One, he seemed amenable to bipartisan cooperation on Daca, saying: “Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I.”
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