Koch groups encourage Trump to accept immigration deal from Dems

The Koch network is encouraging President Trump to accept an immigration deal proposed by Democrats.

Organizations supported by the conservative donors Charles and David Koch are calling for Trump to accept a deal that would include $25 billion in border wall funding and security in exchange for a pathway to citizenship for the larger “Dreamers” population, roughly 1.8 million people.

The organizations encouraging Trump to accept the deal include Libre Initiative, Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners.

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Brent Gardner, a government affairs official for Americans for Prosperity, said in a statement the deal was “an offer all parties should immediately accept.”

The president of Libre Initiative, Daniel Garza encouraged Congress and the White House to “seize this chance.”

“We believe this represents a great opportunity to act on both of these important priorities — which have the strong support of the American people. Congress and the White House should seize this chance to solve this issue and increase certainty and security,” he said in a statement.

“If a deal was on the table that offered both security at the border and permanent status for Dreamers, that’s a deal that Republicans, Democrats and President Trump should support,” said Nathan Nascimento, an executive vice president at the Freedom Partners chamber of commerce.

The White House and congressional Democrats over the weekend were struggling to break a stalemate on immigration, with both sides rejecting competing proposals.

The Trump administration had pitched a deal to include $25 billion in border wall funding and a 2 1/2 year extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in a mammoth government funding bill.

But Democrats reportedly rejected the offer and countered by offering $25 billion in border wall funding in exchange for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, which the White House rejected.

The back-and-forth comes as lawmakers are racing to finalize the omnibus funding bill ahead of Friday’s deadline to prevent the third partial closure of the government this year.