Daily Times

US President Donald Trump on Saturday offered to temporarily shield a million immigrants from deportation if Congress authorizes funding for his Mexican border wall — an idea Democrats rejected, making the US government shutdown likely to continue.

Trump attempted to seize the initiative in ending the 29-day partial shutdown, a funding freeze that has left many important government departments relying on unpaid or highly reduced staff.

His bargain, announced in a televised White House address, held out the carrot of protection from deportation for two categories of immigrants.

These include 700,000 so-called “Dreamers,” children of people who settled illegally in the United States, and who have become a favorite cause of the Democrats, as well as 300,000 other immigrants whose protected status is expiring, Trump said.

The president said these concessions would “build the trust and goodwill necessary to begin real immigration reform.”

In return, Trump demanded the $5.7 billion he says is needed to extend fences on the border with Mexico, something the opposition Democrats have repeatedly refused to authorize. That has prompted the president to retaliate with the government shutdown, which he triggered by not signing off on funding to swaths of departments.

The president also called for $800 million in “urgent humanitarian assistance” and $805 million for drug detection technology to help secure US ports of entry.

“I’m here today to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward to end the government shutdown and solve the crisis on the southern border,” Trump said in his address.

Trump describes the US-Mexico border — for decades a magnet for migrants and asylum seekers, as well as a major drug smuggling route — as overwhelmed, posing a threat to US national security.

Democrats, who accuse Trump of using his illegal immigration crackdown to score political points with his right-wing base, spurned the latest negotiating offer as soon as it was leaked in the media prior to the speech.

“His proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives,” said Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives and the face of Democratic opposition to Trump. “They are a non-starter.

”Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described Trump’s proposal as simply “more hostage taking.”

The New York Democrat says Trump’s plan offers “one-sided and ineffective remedies.”

Schumer said that once Trump signs bills reopening government, negotiations would then be possible.

He said the protections for immigrants that Trump is offering to temporarily revive are legal shields that Trump took away in the first place. He said offering to renew those protections in exchange for wall money is hostage taking.

‘Bold solution’

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell meanwhile hailed Trump’s proposal as a “bold solution to reopen the government, secure the border, and take bipartisan steps toward addressing current immigration issues,” saying he planned to bring it to a vote.

Trump’s speech was the latest sign that both sides may slowly be grasping for a way out of an impasse that has turned into a test of brute political strength.

Published in Daily Times, January 21^st 2019.