Trump makes progress on DACA deal, border security remains sticking point

President Trump made progress Tuesday on the immigration debate that threatens a government shutdown next week, but there’s still a long way to go to strike a deal.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers emerged from a two-hour meeting with the president saying that they made significant progress negotiating a fix to soon-to-expire temporary amnesty for “Dreamers.”

Both sides touted the agreement to limit negotiations to four issues: Dreamers, border security, chain migration and the visa diversity lottery.

A smaller bipartisan group will meet again Wednesday with Mr. Trump to further pursue negotiations.

Significant differences remained, especially over Mr. Trump’s demand for funding to build a border wall. Democrats voiced staunch opposition to the plan, saying other security measures would do a better job.

There is widespread agreement on both sides of the aisle about the urgent need to address the fate of Dreamers. Their temporary legal status, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is set to expire in March.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, said a DACA fix must include strong border measures to prevent a continued influx of illegal immigrant children.

“We don’t want to be back here in two years,” he said, insisting the solution be “generational.”

White House officials allowed reporters and television cameras to record the discussion for nearly an hour, an extraordinary amount of access even for Mr. Trump, who has often granted the media lengthy time in meetings.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, tweeted after the session, “Most fascinating meeting I’ve been involved with in twenty plus years in politics.”

Republican strategist Ana Navarro observed on Twitter, “This bipartisan immigration meeting, and Trump’s interactions in it, all of it is quite extraordinary.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...-border-secur/

Need to know who's going to be in the smaller meeting.

I like seeing how active the discussion are becoming. This can only be a good sign.

Yes, it's good to see the issue is alive and being discussed. But man are they ever going to reach any deal and one that is reasonable at that? I am one of the pessimists here, but these type of things give me 0.01% hope and the wait makes it very difficult to focus on other things in life.

I think its a good sign that both sides agree to DACA + Border Security. We are getting there folks, inch by inch.

More like millimeter by millimeter.

Why are you being negative digimon?

We're gonna be good man. Easier said than done, but patience. We've all been putting something on hold due to the uncertainty. Once we have something solid, we're gonna go balls to the wall baby.