Mr. President, last night, Leader Pelosi and I had a
constructive meeting with President Trump and several members of his
Cabinet. One of our most productive discussions was about the DACA Program, to
which we all agreed on a framework: to pass DACA protections and
additional border security measures, excluding the wall. We agreed that
the President would support enshrining the DACA protections into law. In fact, it is something, he stated, that for a while has needed to be
done. The President also encouraged the House and Senate to act. What remains to be negotiated are the details of border security with
the mutual goal of finalizing all of the details as soon as possible. While both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this
agreement, the President made clear that he intends to pursue it at a
later time, and we made clear that we would continue to oppose it. If you listened to the President's comments this morning and to
Director Mulvaney's comments this morning, it is clear that what Leader
Pelosi and I put out last night was exactly accurate and was confirmed
again this morning by our statement, by the President's statement
before he got on the helicopter to go to Florida, and by Director
Mulvaney's comments. We have reached an understanding on this issue,
but we have to work out details, and we can work together on a border
security package with the White House to get DACA on the floor quickly. Let me talk for a minute about border security. We Democrats are for
border security. We passed a robust border security package as part of
immigration reform in 2013, as the Acting President pro tempore knows
better than anybody else. We are not for the wall, and we will never be
for the wall. It is expensive, it is ineffective, and it involves a lot
of difficult eminent domain--taking people's property--and, apparently,
it is not being paid for by Mexico.
Keywords matched
immigration border security DACA border
security