Many are focusing on inflammatory comments made by the president in a White House meeting on immigration on Thursday but perhaps the more consequential development is the failure of a bipartisan group of senators to get White House buy-in on a framework on immigration put together by them.
A group of six senators – three Democrats and three Republicans – settled on a broad outline for an immigration deal earlier this week that would include a 10-year pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and funding for a wall along the southern border. That deal was rejected by the president.
The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), one of the “gang of six,” said that his hope of getting a bipartisan agreement approved by the White House “died yesterday” so he said Congress will have to show leadership on this issue.
Durbin vowed to keep working on the bipartisan agreement and introduce it next week. He invited Republican leadership to propose ideas they may have that might improve the legislation, but asked for a vote on their proposal if there were no others forthcoming. He said that he would begin working the phones to try and win support from both his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate.
On his goal of giving DACA recipients a pathway to legalization he said, “I am convinced that there’s a majority in both the House and the Senate of Democrats and Republicans who support that concept. I know there’s an overwhelming majority of Americans who support that concept.”