Congress Is Gridlocked On Negotiations To Avoid A Government Shutdown

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said the Obama-era immigration programme “DACA” is “probably dead“, despite the federal government resumed accepting applications for the same on Saturday. “Never said ‘take them out.’ Made up by Dems”.

That means that DACA holders for now can apply to renew their protections, which were due to begin expiring on March 5. There’s been bipartisan support for passing an alternative, but lawmakers have yet to reach an agreement.

Trump made critical comments – allegedly marked by obscene language – about African countries in a White House meeting January 11 with legislators.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, said Tuesday he’ll vote for a short-term spending bill without the DACA fix.

Efforts to extend the program are further complicated because it could make a funding bill to avert a government shutdown due Friday more hard.

If Cardona’s remarks are representative of her party, does it sound like the Democrats want to negotiate with the President in good faith? On Tuesday, he rejected reports that he had expressed a preference for immigrants from places such as Norway at last week’s meeting.

The President said these ugly things at the second such bipartisan meeting he held in the White House in the span of a week on immigration reform. Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for a path to citizenship for Dreamers.

Republicans have backed themselves into a corner, unless they can magically produce a Republican-only long-term spending bill. The Democrats could not deliver on a “clean bill” back in December 2010, when they had 59 votes in the U.S. Senate.

The president has suggested a government shutdown would hurt the military and wants Democrats to get the blame if that occurs. But Democrats also are facing intense pressure from immigration advocates to block the bill and stand up for Dreamers.

“Honestly I don’t think the Democrats want to make a deal”, Trump said. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said during a charged Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.

DACA has protected about 800,000 people, many of them college-age students. “I’m not going to leave them behind”.

But the comments about Haiti and African countries, which Trump has denied making, complicated negotiations further. It has distracted from the policy discussion of not only DACA, but of broader issues like immigration based on merit, which the president says he favors over a policy of family reunification, what he calls “chain immigration”. Lindsey Graham, R- SC and Senate Minority whip Dick Durbin of IL. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt.

One of the biggest setbacks, said Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, wasn’t necessarily what Trump said in the meeting, but the fact that it got out.

“And they want to take money away from our military which we will not do”, Trump said.

At the hearing. Sen.

Lewandowski told WABC Radio Host Rita Cosby, “I’m not concerned at all because I have nothing to hide”. The framing of the issue “is meant to scare people” but “you just can not trick these numbers enough to make it seem risky”. An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants are in the United States, but efforts to enact a comprehensive measure have failed.

“I do not believe DACA is dead”, Nielsen said. “I want them to come in from everywhere – everywhere”, he told reporters.

Last week leaders in Congress appeared close to a deal that would allow about 700,000 immigrants brought illegally to this country as children to stay and keep contributing to their communities and the nation’s economy.

Trump ended DACA late previous year but gave Congress until March 5 to pass legislation extending the initiative created by President Barack Obama.

Last week, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued a nationwide order blocking Trump from ending the program.

House Republican leaders are expected to meet with their members Tuesday night to discuss the negotiations, according to the Journal, and congressional leaders from both parties are set to meet Wednesday, The Washington Post reported.

The department said it was avoiding appealing to the northern California appeals court to expedite the case.

“He (Trump) is anxious that Democrats’ unwillingness to actually put country ahead of their party is what’s stalling things from moving forward, whether it’s the budget or whether it’s a deal on DACA”, Sanders said.