Democratic leaders in Congress said they agreed today with President Donald Trump to work together to provide legal protection to the 800,000 undocumented youths known as “dreamers,” they said in a statement.
They also agreed, according to the Democrats’ version, to negotiate a budget package to finance border security that “is acceptable to both parties” and therefore exclude any departure for the wall with Mexico.
“We had a very productive meeting at the White House with the President,” said Democratic leaders in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, and the House of Representatives. “We agreed to quickly enshrine DACA protections in a law. , Nancy Pelosi, who dined with Trump today.
The White House, for its part, also gave its version of the meeting in a statement in which it did not speak of “agreements” of any kind with Schumer and Pelosi.
According to the White House, Trump and the Democratic leaders spoke at a “constructive” dinner of current “legislative priorities”, including tax reform, border security, DACA (dreamers), infrastructure and trade, in that order.
The US administration said the meeting was a “positive step” to reach “bipartisan solutions” to the problems affecting all Americans and expressed its desire to “continue these talks” with the Democratic leaders.
Trump ended last week’s DACA program, a program promoted by former President Barack Obama in 2012, which has protected from deportation and granted work permits to 800,000 young people undocumented immigrants who came from children to the country and are known as “dreamers”.
The suspension, however, will not be effective until six months later to force Congress to find an alternative to Obama’s program.
