Donald Trump says ‘fairly close’ to deal with Democrats on ‘dreamers’

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is “fairly close” to a deal with congressional leaders on legislation to protect from deportation about 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children.

“We’re working on a plan,” Trump told reporters as he headed from the White House for a trip to hurricane-ravaged Florida. Funding for a wall along the US border with Mexico “will come later,” he said.

Trump’s comments followed his dinner at the White House on Wednesday with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, top Democrats who later said they had reached a tentative agreement to combine the deportation protections for so called “Dreamers” with added resources to bolster border security. While the Democrats said the deal wouldn’t include funding for Trump’s fortified border “wall,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was no such agreement on that item.

On Thursday, Trump said he’d spoken with Republican leaders in Congress and that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan were on board with the plan.

Earlier Thursday on Twitter, Trump had signaled support for protecting the immigrants but said “no deal” was made on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals prog ram, or DACA. “No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent,” he said. “Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military?” A joint statement from Schumer and Pelosi on Thursday said Trump’s tweets “are not inconsistent with the agreement reached last night”.

“We agreed that the President would support enshrining DACA protections into law, and encourage the House and Senate to act,” according to the statement. “What remains to be negotiated are the details of border security, with a mutual goal of finalising all details as soon as possible.

While both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this agreement, the President made clear he intends to pursue it at a later time, and we made clear we would continue to oppose it.”