President Trump offered a deal to Democrats Saturday that includes extensions of protections for recipients of the Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programs in return for $5.7 billion for an additional barrier at the southern border.
Trump reiterated he still wants $5.7 billion for a physical barrier at the U.S.-Mexico border, but he said it would be a “strategic deployment” of resources, “not a 2,000 mile concrete structure from sea to sea.”
“Much of the border is already protected by natural barriers, such as mountains and water. We already have many miles of barrier including 115 miles that we are currently building or under contract,” he said. “Our request will add another 230 miles this year in the areas our border agents most urgently need.”
As part of his “negotiation,” he said he will give legal status, different from a pathway to citizenship, to DACA recipients, as well as continued protections for those in the U.S. under TPS. DACA recipients were brought to the country illegally as children, while people with TPS status are from certain countries that have been affected by conflict or natural disasters.
“Number one is three years of legislative relief for 700,000 DACA recipients brought here unlawfully by their parents at a young age many years ago. This extension will give them access to work permits, social security numbers, and protection from deportation, most importantly,” Trump said during a speech at the White House Saturday afternoon.
“Secondly, our proposal provides a three-year extension of Temporary Protected Status or TPS. This means that 300,000 immigrants whose protected status is facing expiration will now have three more years of certainty so that Congress can work on a larger immigration deal, which everybody wants, Republicans and Democrats.”
The Republican leader said those two steps have the potential to “build the trust and goodwill” that would be required to move on additional immigration reforms with lawmakers.
Trump’s pitch to House and Senate leaders comes 29 days into the partial government shutdown. Both the White House and congressional Democrats have refused to cave or negotiate, forcing the administration to make its move Saturday.
Trump said he’s also willing to give $800 million of his ask for humanitarian assistance. Half of all people apprehended for illegally entering the country in November and December were families fleeing Central America.
Another $805 million would go toward drug detection technology at border crossings.
Trump also asked for an additional 2,750 U.S. Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers, as well as 75 new immigration judges.
Two years ago — in his first week as president — Trump signed an executive order that included a request for 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents and 10,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Neither of those demands were fulfilled.
More judges would allow the number of asylum cases of those who are taken into custody and seeking asylum to get decided on quicker. Cases in 2018 took one to two years, sometimes longer. Because of ICE’s inability to hold people for more than 20 days, families seeking asylum were released into the country.
The backlog of cases now sits at nearly 900,000 cases, Trump said.
Trump also shared plans for a system that would allow those under the age of 18 to apply for asylum in the U.S. from their home country.
Under TPS, those from certain countries who were in the U.S. illegally at the time of a natural disaster, war, famine, or similar situation, were allowed to legally remain and work in the country for two-year terms until their home country said they could be repatriated.
Many of these countries had had their programs renewed many times, some for up to 15 years. Those using the program were now long-term residents in the U.S. who did not want to return.
Since Trump came into office, DHS has announced plans to conclude temporary protected status programs for Nepal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Somalia, Syria, and Honduras.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has extended protections 18 months for recipients from Syria, South Sudan, and Yemen.
The administration has struggled with how to deal with DACA for nearly a year and a half since it tried to terminate the program.
On Sept. 5, 2017, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the program, created through a 2012 memorandum by former President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, was unconstitutional because the Immigration and Nationality Act mandated Congress, not the executive branch, to set immigration levels.
The order had given children of illegal immigrants the chance to apply for a two-year permit that provided legal protections and work permits.
DACA was to be halted over the next six months and ended March 5.
However, after the program wound down, multiple states sued the Trump administration. Two of those lawsuits have resulted in judges issuing temporary injunctions mandating the program continue while legal challenges to Trump’s decision are decided by the courts.
Current recipients are able to apply for renewal while the cases are pending, but no new applicants who would otherwise be covered by the program can apply.
Two cases — one in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California and another in the Eastern District of New York — have both received preliminary injunctions.
Judges in those lawsuits imposed preliminary injunctions that prevented the program from ending on March 5 and allow the more than 535,000 DACA recipients whose protections expire between now and September to apply for renewal.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was also mandated by the courts to continue accepting renewal applications from 689,000 DACA recipients while the issue is decided by the courts. It is not accepting new requests.
Last January, the White House proposed a four-point immigration plan as a way of starting negotiations with Democrats. Trump’s proposal included a pathway to citizenship to the nearly 700,000 DACA recipients, as well as 1 million others who were eligible for the program since it was rolled it out in 2012, but did not enroll.
Trump’s proposal also called for $25 billion in border wall funding, rescinding of the diversity visa lottery and replacing it with a merit-based system, and ending “chain migration,” or visa sponsorships to family members. That deal died in the Senate.
The conservative House Freedom Caucus initially was not supportive of the idea of continuing protections for that group. However, in May, Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said even some of the most conservative immigration bills include a pathway to citizenship for the so-called “Dreamers.”
“I think even in some of the more conservative bills that have been talked about there is the ability to become citizens. And so that’s the narrative that’s not really out there,” Meadows said. “Making sure that those DACA recipients do not have to face deportation and that ultimately they can become citizens.”
Meadows said the issue was whether DACA recipients would go to the back of the citizenship line or be put at the front.
