New offers in Washington Saturday failed to move the needle in the impasse that has led to the country’s longest partial government shutdown.
President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats remain at odds over the president’s demand for funding for constructing a wall along the southwest border. The government has been in a partial shutdown for nearly one full month.
Trump on Saturday unveiled a new offer that would temporarily extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era initiative that Trump ended in March. The lack of a legislative continuation of DACA was at the center of a weekend-long partial shutdown a year ago.
In addition to fully funding the $5.7 billion wall appropriation, the president’s latest proposal would allow eligible undocumented individuals who arrived in the country as children, known as “dreamers,” to have work permits and be protected from deportation for three years.
The proposal would also extend the Temporary Protected Status program, which provides documented status to immigrants from certain countries, for three years.
“Straightforward, fair, reasonable, and common sense, with lots of compromise,” Trump said in an address announcing his proposal Saturday.
But Democrats immediately rejected the plan, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling it a “non-starter.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., scoffed at the president’s characterization of the proposal as a “compromise” in a statement Saturday.
“Offering temporary protections for vulnerable immigrants, protections that he chose to strip in the first place, in exchange for a permanent, $5.7 billion dollar down payment on an ineffective wall is hardly reasonable,” Leahy said. “It is a transparent attempt to look reasonable on television while holding the federal government, and millions of Americans, hostage to a shutdown that harms our economy and communities every day.”
Leahy, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called on Senate Republican leadership and Trump to pass one of the House-passed measures and reopen the government “without any further foot dragging.”
“I welcome a debate on the need for immigration reform and border security, but not while holding hostage all Americans, including hundreds of thousands of federal workers and their families,” Leahy said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in a post on Twitter accused the president of holding DACA recipients and federal workers “hostage.”
Mr. President. Stop holding federal employees hostage and stop holding the young people in DACA hostage. End the federal shutdown and reinstate legal status for these young Americans. #NoWall
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 20, 2019
“End the federal shutdown and reinstate legal status for these young Americans,” Sanders wrote.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., was not available for comment on the latest offers in the shutdown Sunday, according to a spokesperson.
House Democrats, meanwhile, plan to bring up legislation that will include $1 billion in additional spending for border and immigration-related expenses, though not for constructing a border wall, according to CNN. The package is unlikely to break the impasse.
