Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told pool reporters Tuesday that Democrats will not "go easy" on funding for President Donald Trump's border wall, The Washington Post reported.
"I've made it so, so clear to the president there is not going to be a wall, in the appropriations process or others," Schumer said on Capitol Hill. ". . . [White House legislative affairs director] Marc Short issued a statement saying we're not going to tie the wall to Dreamers. That's a very, very good thing, and progress."
Trump wants to see a border wall get built along the U.S.-Mexico line, but where that pops up in the legislative process remains to be seen. There had been speculation Trump would seek to leverage lawmakers' support for DACA recipients to get funding for his wall. But Short said the White House likely would not link the two.
"We are most interested in getting border security, and the president has made a commitment to the American people that he believes that a physical barrier is important to that equation of border security," Short told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington.
"Whether or not that is part of a DACA equation or whether or not that's another legislative vehicle, I don't want to bind ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion on DACA impossible," he said.
Schumer said Trump asked him to "go easy on the wall."
"I said no," the congressman said.