White House and GOP look to avoid immigration fight as shutdown looms

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wh...rticle/2641825

Trump’s previous closed-door conversations with Pelosi and Schumer yielded the framework of an immigration deal that conservative critics said would amount to amnesty for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, as well as the continuing resolution that set Congress up for a holiday season full of spending talks. His friendliness with the Democratic leaders, to whom he referred as “Chuck” and “Nancy,” revived skepticism among some Republicans and rocked his relationships within the GOP conference.

Lawmakers from both parties remain split on a range of issues central to the spending fight, including defense appropriations and funding for disaster relief after a spate of hurricanes hit Puerto Rico and Southern states this summer.

Complicating a process that already has the potential to get messy is a Democratic push to include the immigration issue in the spending bill. Some Democratic lawmakers have even threatened to oppose any funding mechanism that fails to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, an Obama-era initiative that extended protections to undocumented immigrants who were brought into the U.S. as children.

Trump announced in September that he plans to wind down DACA by March, giving Congress six months to craft legislation that would preserve temporary legal status for the roughly 800,000 people eligible for the program. However, nearly three months into that window, lawmakers remain at odds over how and when to strike a DACA deal that can attract bipartisan support.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has advocated for attaching DACA legislation to the spending bill Congress must pass next month.

And a handful of liberal lawmakers — including Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. — have suggested they will vote against spending legislation that does not codify DACA protections.

Democratic congressional leaders have not signaled whether they will insist on folding a DACA fix into the spending bill.

But most GOP members favor saving the immigration battle for another day given the urgency of other big-ticket items on their agenda in December, such as tax reform and legislation to fund the government through September.

Republican congressional leaders have indicated they want to keep DACA discussions out of the year-end spending mix and focus solely on appropriations as the Dec. 8 deadline to avert a shutdown approaches. White House officials also hope to see Congress leave the thorny issue out of spending talks

Pastisan issue? I thought we had support from both sides of congress...They need to attach DA to the funding bill!