According to the Washington Post, White House officials asked Republican congressional leaders to explore cutting a deal in the omnibus spending bill that trades a short-term extension of DACA status for short-term border wall funding. The White House has denied the report but if such an offer has been discussed, it would mark a stunning reduction in the demands President Trump established for a DACA amnesty.
The Post spoke to four Republican officials briefed on the talks between the White House and GOP congressional leaders. The deal could involve providing three-year work permits to about 690,000 DACA recipients in exchange for three years of wall funding. The officials said Trump is open to a deal that would jump start wall construction because legislative action is uncertain and DACA is tied up in the court.
The current continuing resolution expires on March 23rd. GOP congressional leaders had planned to pass an omnibus spending bill for the rest of fiscal year 2018 before then. That leaves little time to pull together a deal of this magnitude.
In January, Trump laid out a framework calling for an end to chain migration and the Visa Lottery, and $25 billion in wall funding, in exchange for providing citizenship to 1.8 million illegal aliens who entered the country as children. The Senate debated Trump’s plan and two other amnesty deals but failed to clear a bill. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) had planned to debate DACA legislation in March. However, Ryan said the matter was no longer urgent after the Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court ruling requiring DACA renewals.
Read more in the Washington Post and The Washington Times.
