On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump defended his demands for hard-line immigration reform in return for allowing recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to remain in the US. He slammed the Democratic Party as being weak on border security, accusing them of not caring about the nation’s safety.
Trump used his Twitter account to express disdain for his political opponents. He tweeted to say that the difficulty in coming to an agreement with the Democratic Party on policies related to immigration is that the latter not only have no interest in making the US safe but are actually against the idea of the nation having secure borders.
Sunday saw the President lay out his proposals for an immigration policy that would include a crackdown on sanctuary cities and the construction of the border wall between the US and Mexico, which was one of the key pledges of his Presidential election campaign, last year. Trump has said the demands must be met to secure his support for any legislation that would provide help to young undocumented immigrants whose futures have been left uncertain since his decision to end the deferred action program, created via executive action by his predecessor in 2012.
But, the demands have further complicated attempts to find a solution to the dilemma now facing the so-called ‘Dreamers’. House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, is calling it a “non-starter”. Work permits for recipients of deferred action will start to expire from next March.