With a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals act (DACA) a huge congressional priority in the first quarter of 2018, a group of House Republicans key in the immigration debate quietly went to the White House earlier this month for an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump on the subject, Politico reported on Wednesday.
House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul of Texas, Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho and Rep. Martha McSally of Arizona were among those in the meeting.
Some Republicans are urging the GOP Congress to take up the issue of DACA, a program that prevented the deportation of those who were brought to the country illegally as children and allows them to work and attend school, in the first few weeks of January in order to avoid the Democrats from using the January 19 government-funding deadline to extract more concessions.
Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell from Michigan told CNN’s “New Day” that bipartisan agreement is possible on DACA, because Trump, the GOP and Democrats all agree that something must be done.
Other Democrats are concerned their party will allow a spending bill to go through without protecting DACA recipients, with Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez telling The Hill that “I think Democrats have really not stood up for the Dreamers as they can."
Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said, following a recent bipartisan meeting with White House chief of staff John Kelly about a deal, that Republicans are "very demanding at the moment" and are asking for too much. One of the GOP demands is reportedly border security money in the package that fixes DACA.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.