President Donald Trump's inability to secure funding for his border wall brought out gleeful reactions — if not mocking — from immigration advocates, The Washington Post reports.
No wall funding also means no protections for illegal immigrants, but there's a difference for immigration advocates — Dreamers are in the hands of the federal courts — and likely the Supreme Court in the fall — while Trump may never get another chance to secure wall funding.
"Trump blew it; he got greedy and now he probably will not get his wall," Kevin Appleby, senior director at the Center for Migration Studies, told the Post.
"President Trump had an opportunity to deliver on two promises. One, build the wall. Two, to sign a 'bill of love' for Dreamers. His desire to slash legal immigration and increase immigration enforcement makes delivering on these promises impossible," Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, told the Post.
Democrats, unencumbered from the urgency to act now on behalf of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, rebuffed the flurry of proposals coming out of the White House this week in its attempt to secure wall funding in exchange for DACA protections in the $1.3 trillion discretionary funding bill moved by Congress.
Trump was seeking $25 billion; the omnibus provides him $1.6 billion.
Trump blasted Democrats on Thursday for refusing to help Dreamers, but with Democrats hopeful of retaking the majority in the House in November while the fate of illegals courses through federal courts, the leverage was theirs, this time.
"He would've actually fulfilled one of his goals, even though I abhor that goal," Sen. Robert Menendez told the Post. "He would have solved a major immigration question that's going to tug at his administration moving in the days ahead."
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