White House Reports Immigration Framework to be Unveiled Next Week

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 1/29/2018, 1:11 p.m.
The White House will release a "legislative framework" for an immigration deal on Monday that it believes can earn bipartisan …

The White House will release a "legislative framework" for an immigration deal on Monday that it believes can earn bipartisan support, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The White House's plan comes after the latest negotiations between the White House and lawmakers of both parties broke down, leading to a three-day government shutdown. The framework is expected to give much-needed guidance to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have at times struggled to grasp what kind of deal President Donald Trump would and would not be willing to reach.

Several lawmakers have expressed frustration in recent weeks that the guidance from the White House has been unclear or inconsistent. South Carolina's Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Republican negotiator, called the White House's plan to release a framework "excellent," noting the importance of getting the White House's "input.” Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia, an immigration hard-liner aligned with the White House, said he spoke with Trump on Wednesday about this issue and that the President remains committed to the core pillars he had previously laid out.

Sanders reiterated those requirements on Wednesday: "securing the border and closing legal loopholes, ending extended family chain migration, canceling the visa lottery and providing a permanent solution on DACA.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said he had offered and then rescinded border wall funding in exchange for Dreamer protections, said Wednesday he was looking for a reset.

"We're starting over," Schumer told CNN on Wednesday when asked about the latest on the standoff over Congress' plans for addressing the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. "I took our thing off -- they took their thing off the table, I took our thing, we're starting over."

Schumer was referring to an offer he made Trump last week to authorize upward of $20 billion for a border wall, a signature campaign pledge for the President, in exchange for protecting recipients of DACA, young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children. Trump decided last fall to end the program by March 5, and Congress has since failed to reach agreement with the White House about how to extend it.

The White House rejected Schumer's offer.