Democratic leaders say the president has agreed to fix Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by making a law on the amnesty.
Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi have said that in their meeting with the president on Wednesday both political parties have “agreed” to work on DACA, CNN reported.
Schumer and Pelosi said they discussed on the border-security plan too.
In a first positive statement for immigration in months, Schumer and Pelosi said that the parties “agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides.”
They said their meeting at the White House was “very productive.”
Sarah Sanders, White House press secretary, confirmed the discussions and said, “While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to.”
Reportedly, Trump and Democratic leaders will join efforts to form a DREAM Act with border security, excluding the wall.
Interestingly, Trump had once described Schumer and Pelosi as a “clown” and “loser”. However, in a press briefing announcing the meeting earlier that day, James Brady said important issues like immigration needs thorough discussions across party lines.
“As we’ve said many times before, we’ve got a very ambitious legislative agenda for this fall, and the President wants to work with anybody that wants to move America forward,” Bardy said. “And if they’re willing to do that — sit down, be part of that conversation on both tax cuts and tax reform, responsible immigration reform — then the President certainly welcomes those conversations.
Fulfilling his election promise, the Trump administration rescinded DACA earlier this month. The program, started by former President Barack Obama in 2012, provided amnesty to undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children. It gave them work authorization and protected them from deportation.
Other topics discussed during the Wednesday night meeting included tax reform, infrastructure, trade and border security.