Trump Expected to Offer Deportation Reprieves in Exchange for Wall Funding

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19-Jan-2019
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Annie Karni, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump is expected to announce on Saturday his support for extending deportation reprieves in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico, as Republican lawmakers and White House aides have pressured him to end the shutdown.

Mr. Trump is expected to support extending the legal status of those holding temporary protected status, according to a White House official. The president is also expected to indicate support for the Bridge Act, bipartisan legislation that would allow about 740,000 immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, to keep their work permits and deportation reprieves for three more years if they are revoked. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, however, cautioned that the president was often quick to change his mind and that his remarks could still shift before his planned announcement from the White House at 4 p.m.

The concession by the president, Republican allies said, emerged from discussions that Vice President Mike Pence and the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, have had in recent days with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. Mr. Pence and Mr. Kushner, people familiar with their conversations said, believe that they could persuade a handful of Democrats to join Republicans and pass a Senate bill that would then put pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reach a deal.

“The Democrats’ talking points have been that the president is solely responsible for shutting down the government,” Marc Short, the former White House legislative director, said of Mr. Trump’s anticipated announcement. “This puts more onus on them to come back and say why this proposal is insufficient.”

Democratic lawmakers, however, were skeptical of the proposal and signaled that they would not negotiate until the government was reopened. One Democratic aide noted that lawmakers in the party had not been consulted about Mr. Trump’s announcement and in the past had rejected similar overtures. Another senior House Democratic aide noted that the Bridge Act did not fully protect Dreamers and did not offer a permanent pathway to citizenship. Lawmakers also said Ms. Pelosi was livid about being forced to cancel a trip to Afghanistan and Brussels after the president denied her use of a military plane and then scuttled her attempt to fly commercially by publicly revealing her travel plans.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump was also expected to host a naturalization ceremony at the White House, a move intended to underscore the notion that he supports legal immigration.

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