Trump links border wall and green card overhaul to DACA

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump told congressional leaders on Sunday that his hard-line immigration priorities must be enacted in exchange for extending protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, many of whom were brought to the United States illegally as children.

Trump's list of demands included overhauling the country's green-card system, a crackdown on unaccompanied minors entering the country and building his promised wall along the southern border.

Many were policies Democrats have said explicitly are off the table and threaten to derail ongoing negotiations over legislation protecting about 690,000 young immigrants known as "Dreamers". They had been given a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the country under president Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which Trump ended last month.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders released by the White House, Trump said the priorities were the product of "a bottom-up review of all immigration policies" that he had ordered "to determine what legislative reforms are essential for America's economic and national security.

Trump announced last month that he was ending the DACA program, but he gave Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix before recipients began to lose their status. Trump said at the time that he was eager for a deal, telling reporters: "I have a love for these people and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly."

Trump had previously said he wanted a DACA deal to include significant money for border security and eventual funding for his border wall. But the priorities released by the White House went far beyond that.

They included a complete overhaul of the green-card system that would limit family-based green cards to spouses and the minor children of US citizens and lawful permanent residents as part of an effort to end what is known as "chain migration".

The White House also said it wants to boost fees at border crossings, hire 10,000 more immigration enforcement officers. And it wants new measures to crack down on "sanctuary cities", which don't share information with federal immigration authorities, among other proposals.

"These priorities are essential to mitigate the legal and economic consequences of any grants or status to DACA recipients," White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters.

But it remained unclear whether the president considers each of the more than a dozen priorities to be non-negotiable or whether the White House sees them more as a starting point for negotiation with members of Congress. Officials on the call notably declined to say whether the president would veto legislation that did not include each and every one of them.

Trump's list was criticized by Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the respective Democratic leaders in the Senate and House.

"This proposal fails to represent any attempt at compromise," they said in a joint statement.

"The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the president was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good-faith effort to do so."

AP - AFP - Reuters

(China Daily 10/10/2017 page11)