Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Sunday said in a statement the Trump administration’s immigration demands, "fails to represent any attempt at a compromise."
Trump has laid out a string of demands on what must be done to keep the "Dreamers" in the U.S., including fully funding the president’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and money to hire thousands of additional immigration agents.
Trump said in September he planned to cut off the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, but then urged Congress to come up with a plan to codify the Obama-era order and protect its recipients.
"We told the President at our meeting that we were open to reasonable border security measures alongside the DREAM Act, but this list goes so far beyond what is reasonable. This proposal fails to represent any attempt at compromise,” said Schumer and Pelosi in a joint statement.
"The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the President was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so."
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short in mid-September said the White House would not tie the wall to the Dreamers and Democrats have been adamant about Trump using the border wall to leverage lawmakers’ support for DACA recipients.
"The Administration can't be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans," said Schumer and Pelosi.
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