President Donald Trump has made good-faith efforts to end the shutdown, and now it’s up to the Democrats to make a deal — at least, that’s what Vice President Mike Pence and White House adviser Jared Kushner said after Democrats swatted a weekend compromise from the president that included protections for illegal immigrants in exchange for wall funding.
Trump is interested in laying the foundations for a bigger bipartisan immigration package, and the Democrats need to work with him on the shutdown to build trust between parties, they said — but many are skeptical that the Democrats will shift from their uncompromising stance on the border.
Pence, Kushner hail compromise deal
The longest government shutdown in history is entering its second month as Republicans and Democrats trade accusations of putting party over country. The Democrats have characterized Trump as uncompromising in his demands for border wall funding, but the Democrats have repeatedly scuttled attempts at negotiation.
President Trump attempted to break the stalemate with an olive branch on Saturday that included three-year extensions on protections for nearly 1 million illegal immigrants protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in exchange for wall funding. But even that wasn’t good enough for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who rejected the deal as a “non-starter” for not including permanent legal status for illegal immigrants before Trump even spoke. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump was taking “hostages” and insisted that he open the government before border talks start.
Meanwhile, Pence, Kushner, and White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney hailed the deal as an attempt at compromise that could jump-start more ambitious talks on immigration reform. The deal came together after Pence, Kushner, and others reached out to rank-and-file Democrats to work around Pelosi’s uncompromising party leadership.
Kushner said that a bigger deal could be on the horizon if the Democrats start working with Trump, who is negotiating in “good faith” to break through a decades-long blockade on immigration reform.
“He wants to do broader immigration reform and I think if we can get through this, I think there is a way toward having a lot of next steps,” Kushner said. “There is a lot that can be done on this topic.”
President Trump echoed Kushner’s positive outlook in his Saturday speech, saying: “If we are successful in this effort, we will have the best chance in a long time at real, bipartisan immigration reform, and it won’t stop here, it will keep going until we do it all.”
Pence: No amnesty on the table
The White House is hoping that the compromise will sway public opinion against the Democrats for their unwillingness to negotiate, but some Republicans remained unhappy with the compromise, and Democrats rejected it out of hand for not offering permanent amnesty to illegal immigrants. Trump and Pence spent the weekend fighting criticism from immigration hardliners, including Ann Coulter, who said that the administration was capitulating to the Democrats’ demands with a weak amnesty deal.
“There is no amnesty in the president’s plan and there is no pathway to citizenship,” Pence promised reporters. The VP went on to make the media rounds defending Trump’s plan, calling it a “good faith, common-sense compromise” and a prelude to wider plans to fix the broken immigration system before Trump himself took to Twitter to express similar sentiments:
No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer. It is a 3 year extension of DACA. Amnesty will be used only on a much bigger deal, whether on immigration or something else. Likewise there will be no big push to remove the 11,000,000 plus people who are here illegally-but be careful Nancy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2019
Dems reject compromise
For his part, Mulvaney warned over the weekend that the shutdown would continue, leaving government workers to miss a second paycheck, if the Democrats filibuster the compromise bill. The bill will head to the Senate this week, where it will be taken up by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been refusing to take up Democrat spending bills on the expectation that Trump will veto them.
But Democrats insist that Trump could sign off on spending bills to open the government minus wall funding and talk about the border later, so expecting reasonable negotiations from the Democrats is probably still a fool’s errand. Republicans will need at least seven Democrats to come on board with the compromise.
Democrats have passed numerous spending bills through the House since Pelosi took the speaker’s gavel that do not include wall funding.
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