President Trump on Friday accused Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of trying to scuttle a deal to help young immigrants who are protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“DACA has been made increasingly difficult by the fact that Cryin’ Chuck Schumer took such a beating over the shutdown that he is unable to act on immigration!” Trump tweeted from Air Force One while traveling back to Washington from Davos, Switzerland.
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The comments came in response to Schumer’s criticism of a new White House proposal on immigration reform, which would offer a pathway to citizenship to as many as 1.8 million immigrants who are covered by DACA or are eligible.
In a pair of tweets, Schumer called the plan a wish list for “anti-immigrant hardliners.”
“While @realDonaldTrump finally acknowledged that the Dreamers should be allowed to stay here and become citizens, he uses them as a tool to tear apart our legal immigration system and adopt the wish list that anti-immigration hardliners have advocated for for years,” he tweeted.
The top Senate Democrats was referring to major cuts Trump proposed to the family-based immigration system.
Under the president’s plan, U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents could only sponsor their spouses and minor children for immigration. They would no longer be able to sponsor extended family members, including parents and siblings.
The measure could dramatically reduce levels of legal immigration, something many Democrats say is too high a price to pay to save the DACA program, which Trump terminated last year.
The spat shows how difficult it will be for Congress and the president to strike a deal on immigration.
Lawmakers are rushing to reach a compromise by Feb. 8, when government funding is set to expire. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will hold an open debate on the issue if a deal is not reached before then.
DACA is an Obama-era program that allows nearly 700,000 young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to live and work without fear of deportation.
The program is set to begin winding down on March 5.
