President Donald Trump’s new alignment with Democrats in Congress continued on Thursday. He got in touch with the party leaders to try and make more deals and even agreed to their request to reassure young immigrants affected by the decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that they need not worry about imminent deportation.
On Wednesday, Trump managed to come to a fiscal agreement with the Democratic Party, even over his own party leader and Treasury Secretary objections. A day later, Trump was calling California Representative, Nancy Pelosi, and New York Senator, Chuck Schumer to make it clear that he wanted to keep working along party lines, saying he received a positive response.
Pelosi asked Trump to use Twitter to emphasize that the 800,000 undocumented young immigrants helped by the now canceled deferred action program will keep their work permits and protection from deportation for the next six months. Trump, who has called on Congress to deal with the issue legislatively, did just that. Trump told reporters he hopes the accord will start a more bi-partisan relationship between the nation’s two major political parties.
Democrats responded with cautious optimism to the President’s more conciliatory approach, hoping a political landscape that would be more cooperative, including on issues such as immigration, would be forthcoming. Schumer told The New York Times that, while Trump appeared amenable to the idea of saving the deferred action program via legislation, he will believe it when he sees the cooperation take place.