President Donald Trump continues to harden his demands on a deal protecting young undocumented immigrants from deportation from the US, as talks with congressional Democrats try to avert a possible government shutdown over the issue.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for the White House said that any deal to protect ‘Dreamers’ whose future has been threatened by the decision to stop the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program must also ban immigrants from sponsoring their relatives to come to the US, provide funding for a wall on the border between the US and Mexico, and end the current program allocating US visas to immigrants from nations with a low immigration level to the country.
The statement echoed a tweet made by Trump last week. On Friday, the President said that the Democrats are fully aware that no new deferred action program will be created without agreeing to the above terms. He accused the party of being more interested in playing politics than actually doing anything to assist the creation of a new DACA program.
On Wednesday, the Congressional leaders of both of the nation’s top political parties will meet with White House officials, Marc Short, the Legislative Director, and Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, to discuss a 2018 fiscal year spending plan. Both Capitol Republicans and the White House say that the meeting will focus on defense and domestic spending caps, avoiding other issues, such as immigration, although Democrat leaders are being pushed to use the legislation as leverage on DACA.