President Trump said Thursday that a deal for border wall funding in exchange for legal protections for young immigrants fell through because a federal court blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“The reason the DACA for Wall deal didn’t get done was that a ridiculous court decision from the 9th Circuit allowed DACA to remain, thereby setting up a Supreme Court case. After ruling, Dems dropped deal – and that’s where we are today, Democrat obstruction of the needed Wall,” Trump tweeted Thursday.
The reason the DACA for Wall deal didn’t get done was that a ridiculous court decision from the 9th Circuit allowed DACA to remain, thereby setting up a Supreme Court case. After ruling, Dems dropped deal – and that’s where we are today, Democrat obstruction of the needed Wall.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2018
The Trump administration announced last year it would be rolling back the DACA program and gave Congress until March to enshrine its protections into law.
The White House early this year attempted to tie funding for Trump’s border wall to the DACA program and called for Congress to OK $25 billion for the wall in exchange for a multi-year extension of the Obama-era program.
The deal, however, failed in the Senate.
Trump’s attempted rescission of DACA was swiftly challenged in federal court, and several judges, including those in San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C., ruled against the president.
In November, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s order that blocked the Trump administration from ending DACA.
The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to take up the dispute over the legality of its attempted rescission of the Obama-era immigration program.
Trump is urging Congress to include $5 billion for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in a government spending package, a demand Democratic leaders oppose.
The president told House GOP leaders last week he would not sign legislation that does not include new money for the wall, effectively torpedoing a Senate-passed measure that provided funding for a host of federal agencies. As a result, lawmakers left D.C. last week without passing a spending bill, resulting in a partial government shutdown that is in its sixth day.
Trump has placed the onus for the shutdown on congressional Democrats and warned a border wall is needed to combat the flow of drugs across the southern border and stem human trafficking and criminal activity.
“The Democrats OBSTRUCTION of the desperately needed Wall, where they almost all recently agreed it should be built, is exceeded only by their OBSTRUCTION of 350 great people wanting & expecting to come into Government after being delayed for more than two years, a U.S. record!” Trump said in a subsequent tweet.
The Democrats OBSTRUCTION of the desperately needed Wall, where they almost all recently agreed it should be built, is exceeded only by their OBSTRUCTION of 350 great people wanting & expecting to come into Government after being delayed for more than two years, a U.S. record!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2018
The government shutdown is expected to last into the next Congress, as House GOP leadership advised members there would be no votes in the House this week.
