White House Rejects Bipartisan Senate Immigration Proposal

The Trump administration rejected a bipartisan Senate proposal to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation, saying it needed more work.

The Trump administration rejected a bipartisan Senate proposal to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation, saying it needed more work.

“We’re pleased that bipartisan members are talking,” President Donald Trump’s congressional liaison Marc Short said Thursday, but added, “I think there’s still a ways to go.”

Short said the administration is concerned about a number of issues including the amount of protection at the U.S.-Mexico border and family preferences for immigrants.

After going to the White House to present the proposal, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters he hoped the meeting would lead to "a breakthrough" on immigration.

Democrats are demanding protection for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, known as "dreamers," as part of a spending bill to keep the federal government open after current funding ends Jan. 19. Trump decided in September to end the Obama-era initiative on March 5.

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican in the six-member negotiating group, said members had agreed among themselves on a proposal.

Second-ranking Senate Republican John Cornyn, who isn’t part of the group, said he spoke with Trump and the president told him the negotiators need to get wider approval of the plan before moving ahead.

Immigration hardliner Senator Tom Cotton, a Trump ally, called the proposal "a joke" after the White House meeting, saying it didn’t go far enough in particular to end immigration family preferences.

In exchange for putting the "dreamer" protections into law, Trump has demanded funds for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, limits to family priority in immigration and an end to a visa lottery to promote diversity.

Cotton said the plan would provide funding for just one year of wall demonstration projects. It would limit immigrants with legal residency status from sponsoring adult children for immigration until they become citizens, he said. And, it would reallocate the diversity visas for other uses, said Cotton of Arkansas.

    More News...
    Chat with Penny
    Chat Now!
      Your Answer