President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are confident they're in a good place "from a PR standpoint" if Senate Democrats walk away from the DACA deal that's on the table, Politico reports.
That deal — offering a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants — is a non-starter for Democrats, because it also would restrict legal immigration.
Let the talking points begin.
"It seems to me this ought to be a pretty sweet bipartisan deal to solve the problem," Republican Sen. Roger Wicker told Politico. "I think we're looking pretty good from a PR standpoint" if it fails.
Trump has maintained that any immigration bill he signs to help the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients also has to fund his border wall, beef up border security, restrict chain migration, and eliminate the visa lottery.
Democrats can stomach the first two, but not the last two.
"Anything that goes left of this wouldn't even get taken up in the House," a senior administration official told Politico. "The president is not going to sign anything that doesn't secure the four pillars."
And it's not just exclusively Democrats who don't like the president's compromise bill.
"We're not going to cut legal immigration by a third," Politico quoted Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
And time is fleeting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will cut off debate this week, having fulfilled his vow to Democrats for an open immigration debate on the Senate floor.
Republicans are framing the stalemate as calling the bluff of Democrats, saying they don't have a DACA bill to offer because they want to make immigration a pet issue in November's midterms.
"It's almost like people are fighting to get to no." If Democrats vote no, "they've let down a lot of DACA people," Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told Politico.
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