White House Immigration Demands Imperil Bipartisan Talks

An estimated 780,000 young people brought to this country illegally were shielded from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, a program instituted by former President Barack Obama in 2012. But in September, Mr. Trump rescinded the program, known by its acronym, DACA, and gave Congress six months to come up with a replacement.

Since then, immigration advocates say, 14,000 young people have lost their protected status because they could not renew two-year work permits issued under the program.

Mr. Durbin and four other senators — including three Republicans — have been meeting nearly every day for the past two months to negotiate a deal that would protect the DACA recipients while beefing up border security, a key Republican demand. Senators said they were making progress but were stalled while awaiting a “punch list” from the White House that would set forth the president’s conditions.

The White House documents include a list of ‘‘critical physical border security requirements,” including the $18 billion for a “border wall system,” first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Friday. The money would be used to construct more than 2,000 miles of new or replacement barriers along the border with Mexico.

Mr. Durbin, who said he would continue the bipartisan talks with his senate colleagues “in good faith,” made the documents public late Friday afternoon, sparking an intense reaction from his fellow Democrats. Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House leader, took to Twitter, writing, “@realDonald Trump, that border wall funding you are asking for (again) could do so much more good in other places …. #NoWall”

The White House issued the demands as Mr. Trump decamped to Camp David, where he was meeting with Republican congressional leaders to address a series of issues — including keeping the government open past Jan. 19.

But part of the discussions were also expected to center on how to reach an accord with Democrats over protections for the undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, those known as Dreamers, as well as how to fund a major children’s health care program that is in danger of running out of funds. The president met with Republicans at the White House on Wednesday, but the meetings at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, are designed to come up with a clearer strategic approach.

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The administration and Congress must also strike a deal to raise statutory limits on military and domestic spending before Jan. 19, when the current stopgap spending bill expires.

If they cannot reach a deal, the government could be forced into a partial shutdown almost a year to the day after Mr. Trump was sworn into office.

How Mr. Trump works with Congress over these critical domestic issues will set a tone for his second year in office, and could shape the 2018 midterm election landscape. Republicans are deeply concerned that their majorities in the House and Senate may be in jeopardy.

Before leaving for Camp David, the president continued to play head economic cheerleader. “The stock market is up very, very big today,” he told reporters. “We’ve set new records, and I think they’ll be continued to set.” The Dow Jones industrial average broke the 25,000 barrier for the first time on Thursday.

“The tax cuts are really kicking in far beyond what anyone thought. Numerous companies have today come out and announced that they’re going to make big payments to their employees — something that nobody really had in mind,” Mr. Trump said.

Earlier this week, the president expressed some hope that he could reach a deal with Democrats over the Obama-era immigration initiative, which allowed immigrants illegally brought to the United States as children to be shielded from deportation and to receive temporary, renewable work permits.

Mr. Trump said then that, in addition to the wall, he wanted to limit family-based migration, which critics call ‘‘chain migration,’’ that allows relatives to sponsor family members to come to the United States. And he wants to do away with the diversity visa lottery, a State Department program that admits immigrants from countries that do not send many people to the United States.

“We’d love to take care of DACA,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday, “but we’re only going to do it under these conditions.”

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In a Twitter message on Tuesday, the president accused Democrats of “doing nothing for DACA” and being interested only in politics.

Democrats are doing nothing for DACA – just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start “falling in love” with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.

—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Jan. 2, 2018

Whether that approach will bring along dubious Democrats is not certain, but it is clear that DACA is only one piece of a larger puzzle.

While many Democrats support ending the visa program and stiffening border and interior enforcement, it is not clear whether they will back the measures that Republicans demand to limit what they call “chain migration,” allowing immigrants to sponsor family members once they gain legal status.

“Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” Ms. Pelosi said in an interview on Tuesday.

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