President Donald Trump will veto any immigration bill to codify DACA protections into law that does not meet his three core demands, a senior administration official told Axios.
Trump’s veto threat comes as the Senate begins a period of debate on immigration in which lawmakers will try to conjure a bill capable of garnering the requisite 60 votes. The president has vowed that any bill which will codify Obama-era protections for illegal immigrants into law must be accompanied by funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and that it must end both chain migration and the diversity visa lottery program.
Negotiations on DACA have begun. Republicans want to make a deal and Democrats say they want to make a deal. Wouldn’t it be great if we could finally, after so many years, solve the DACA puzzle. This will be our last chance, there will never be another opportunity! March 5th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2018
Trump ended the DACA program in September, citing its likely unconstitutionality, giving lawmakers 6 months to hammer out a deal which conforms with his demands. The administration has released its own legislative framework for a bill it believes is a compromise solution which includes — $25 billion for border wall funding — in return for a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
Democratic legislative leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, however, have rejected the White House proposal outright, decrying its long term cuts to the immigration system and pledging not to allocate funds for a border wall. The president has repeatedly emphasized to Schumer and other democratic lawmakers that if there is no funding for a border wall then a legislative fix for the illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children is a non starter.