In negotiations to avoid a government shutdown, Schumer says he put a “signature campaign issue on the table” in exchange for a DREAMer deal.
The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, is taking back his offer to President Trump to fund his “big beautiful wall.”
“The wall offer is off the table,” Schumer told reporters on Tuesday. “That was part of a package” that’s now defunct.
Schumer first made the offer on Friday during a meeting with Trump at the White House, part of negotiations to avert a government shutdown. Schumer said he put Trump’s “signature campaign issue on the table in exchange” for legal protections DREAMers, young immigrants brought to the U. S. illegally as children.
“It was the first thing the president and I talked about,” Schumer said Tuesday. “The thought was we could come to an agreement that afternoon, the president would announce his support, and then the Senate and the House would get it done and it would be on the president’s desk. He didn’t do that, so we’re going to have to start on a new basis.”
The White House has given a different account of Friday’s meeting, saying Schumer offered legislative approval for the wall but not actual funding.
After the Trump-Schumer talks stalled, the Senate blocked a short-term spending bill, sparking a partial government shutdown. Senate Democrats voted against the measure because it did not include protections for the DREAMers, who now have temporary legal status under an Obama-era program called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Trump said in September he would kill the DACA program but gave Congress six months to find a solution.
The shutdown lasted through Monday evening when Congress approved a new short-term spending bill that will expire on Feb. 8. Most Senate Democrats voted for that bill after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., promised he would bring immigration legislation to the Senate floor if Congress had not reached an agreement on the DACA recipients by the time the spending bill runs out.
