House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., argued Tuesday that there’s no reason why Congress shouldn’t be able to pass legislation protecting immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children by the end of this year.
“We’re pretty focused on getting it done this year,” Hoyer told reporters. “There’s not a single defensible reason why this is not done within the next month or two.”
Trump has said he would rescind the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program early next year.
But significant hurdles are emerging for the bill, as the White House put out a series of immigration principles that it wants to see imposed as a condition for protecting younger illegal immigrants. Those include building the border wall, and several other steps aimed at beefing up immigration enforcement that Democrats oppose.
Democrats last month said they had a deal with Trump not to push that hard on immigration enforcement, although the White House never confirmed their version of the deal. Still, Hoyer said the White House’s new terms for an agreement are “inconsistent” with the Democrats’ understanding of the agreement.
“We believe it is inconsistent with what the president told Leader [Chuck] Schumer and Leader [Nancy] Pelosi, and his expression of support for these young people,” Hoyer said.
“President Trump ought to decide what he thinks. He either thinks these are positive folks who ought to be taken care of, which is what he implied in public statements,” Hoyer added. “If you’re going to have them here, they consider themselves to be Americans, we absolutely believe there ought to be a path to citizenship for these young people.”
