President Donald Trump is, once again, sending mixed signals on a DACA deal, 24 hours after congressional leaders outlined goals for a legislative fix.
“Any solution has to include the wall. Without the wall, it doesn't work,” the President said while taking questions at a joint news conference with the Prime Minister of Norway.
“We need the wall for security, for safety, we need the wall from stopping the drugs from pouring in,” he continued.
However, during a televised bipartisan negotiation session on Tuesday, the President, at one point, seemed to indicate he would be open to a stand-alone bill to protect the hundreds of thousands of young immigrants known as Dreamers.
"It should be a bipartisan bill. It should be a bill of love; truly, a bill of love,” the President said Tuesday.
The complex and arguably confusing negotiations come as a federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s decision to end the deferred action program, for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.
“I think it’s a symbolic victory,” said Paul Quiñonez, a volunteer with the Washington Dream Coalition. “It shouldn’t let congress off the hook.”
Quiñonez, immigration advocates, and even former homeland security officials are pushing lawmakers for a solution by the middle of this month, so federal authorities have enough time to implement a new program.
“I think best case scenario for us right now is Dream act legislation attached with border security, and what worries us is the longer this conversation goes on, longer negotiations are drawn out, the possibility of other harmful things being attached,” said Quiñonez of the ongoing negotiation.
Quiñonez who traveled to Washington D.C. in December to meet with lawmakers says Dreamers will continue to pressure Democratic congress members to use their leverage around the spending deal that must pass by the end of next week.
