President Donald Trump's top aides are urging him to offer so-called Dreamers protection in exchange for overall immigration legislation, McClatchy reported on Tuesday.
The aides, spearheaded by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, view the deal as a way to bring an important accomplishment to an administration which has failed to pass promised healthcare reform and has been bogged down in multiple controversies.
The package agreement with Congress would include paying for a border wall and more detention facilities, curbing legal immigration and implementing E-verify, an online system that allows businesses to check immigration status in exchange for protecting Dreamers, young people brought into the country illegally as children by their undocumented parents.
The issue of Dreamers is reaching a critical deadline, making a deal on it more attractive.
The Hill reported that Texas and nine other states will file a lawsuit against the Barack Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, by which nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children were given a work permit and protected from deportation, unless the Trump administration rescinds it by Sept. 5.
Although Trump vowed during the presidential campaign to deport Dreamers, he has shown more sympathy to their situation since entering the White House and has so far continued to allow them to apply for the program and even renew their permits.
Another deadline approaching which could add impetus to the deal is that if by the end of September, if Congress cannot pass a funding bill, the government will shut down.
Democrats have so far refused to support any legislation involving the wall.
Those supporting the comprehensive agreement on immigration see these two upcoming deadlines as a possible path to a compromise.
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