TRUMP: ‘Oh, DACA, we want to move on this quick, we don’t want to wait six months,’”

Trump tells lawmakers to move quickly on DACA without linking it to border wall

President Trump told lawmakers Wednesday that Republicans will move quickly to shelter hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” facing an uncertain future after the president gutted a program granting legal rights to those same immigrants.

He also promised he would not seek to link funding for his proposed border wall to legislative action on the program.

Trump last week rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA), giving Congress a six-month deadline to come up with a legislative solution. But in a White House meeting with centrist lawmakers from both parties, the president said he doesn’t want to wait that long, according to one of the participants.

Indeed, said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), the president is already getting impatient.

“He says, ‘Oh, DACA, we want to move on this quick, we don’t want to wait six months,’” Cuellar said after the meeting. “He said, ‘It’s already been six days and nothing’s happened.’”

Cuellar said Trump didn’t propose a timeline, but voiced concerns that waiting until the March 5 deadline grows closer would only put a spotlight on the issue and make it more difficult for Congress to act. The president, Cuellar said, wants to move “when people are not expecting it.”

Democratic leaders have warned that they’ll opposed any new funding for Trump’s border wall. In response, the president told the lawmakers Wednesday that he’ll divorce the issue from a DACA bill.

“He said, ‘We don’t have to tie a wall to this. We can put a wall [in another bill],’” Cuellar said, emphasizing that other border enforcement measures would likely be included.

That strategy would likely alienate conservatives fighting for more wall funding. And that’s hardly the only hurdle facing a DACA fix.

Trump also floated another idea that would certainly complicate passage of a DACA fix: the president, Cuellar said, wants to include parts of a GOP bill that demands more merit-based screenings for immigrants while reducing the number of legal immigrants by roughly a half over a decade. That proposal, sponsored by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), is a non-starter for most Democrats.

Cuellar said he spoke to Marc Short, the White House Director of Legislative Affairs, about setting up a meeting between the president and the members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Short, Cuellar said, encouraged the idea.

“He said, ‘Absolutely, set it up and we’ll meet with them,’” Cuellar said.

Other participants in the meeting were also optimistic, though cautiously so given the historic difficulties of moving immigration-related legislation on Capitol Hill.

“We won't know if it was a success until we see how the conversation translates to policy,” Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) said afterward in a statement.

Wednesday’s meeting came just a week after top Democratic leaders united with the president on a fiscal deal to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and provide $15 billion to the victims of Hurricane Harvey. That surprise agreement has raised speculation that Trump, after months largely ignoring the Democrats, is ready to start working across the aisle for the sake of jump-starting a legislative agenda that had sputtered under a strictly partisan approach.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...-linking-it-to

i pray the god they dont attach the raise act to this deal or anything that would put others at risk

legalization for christmas anyone?

I hope tonight they tell him part of Raise Act is a no no. They can discuss that for another immigration bill in the future ugh

That's like the 100th time you've posted that.

Do we get automatic Conditional Permanent Residence? Or do we have to apply for it if we currently have DACA? Applying would take very long. Specially when millions qualify huh?

im excited bro! best xmas gift ever!

plus the DACA guidelines we initially had to meet, we qualify for conditional PR if:

i) has been admitted to an institution of higher education;

(ii) has earned a high school diploma or a commensurate alternative award from a public or private high school, or has obtained a general education development certificate recognized under State law or a high school equivalency diploma in the United States; or

(iii) is enrolled in secondary school or in an education program assisting students in—

(I) obtaining a regular high school diploma or its recognized equivalent under State law; or

(II) in passing a general educational development exam, a high school equivalence diploma examination, or other similar State-authorized exam.

then everyone has 5 years to complete 2 years towards a bachelors or 2 yr military service during their 5 year conditional PR to transition to Permanent Residency.

It'd be nice if we are automatically enrolled into the program. The requirements are the same, plus, recent renewals had to go through biometrics again. So our background check is already cleared.

I hope so too. That's an even more non-starter than the wall money.