President Donald Trump on Monday said Democrats "do not want to help DACA," after the White House and congressional Democrats rejected competing proposals over the weekend on the issue.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, allowed people who illegally came to the United States as children with their parents to stay if they met certain criteria. Trump ended DACA in September with a six-month delay and said Congress needed to come up with a solution for the affected Dreamers.
The Trump administration offered Democrats a two-and-a-half-year extension of protections for Dreamers facing deportation in return for $25 billion in funding for a border wall, according to Politico. Democrats said they would deliver the funding in exchange for a pathway for citizenship for the 1.8 million immigrants.
Democrats were unwilling to negotiate a temporary fix.
"We sent the minority leaders' offices a proposal that is pretty fair," a White House official told Politico. "It seems like Democrats don't want to take yes for an answer."
A senior Democratic aide disputed that characterization.
"The White House proposal gave them everything they asked for, while leaving Dreamers in limbo," the aide told Politico. "Our counteroffer lined up perfectly with what the president had proposed, but of course, he said no to his own deal. Again."