Willie Brown: Opposing Border Wall ‘Could Spell Trouble’ for Nancy Pelosi

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown thinks House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could be in some trouble if she turns down a potential deal to give a pathway to citizenship to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and other so-called Dreamers because of her opposition to the border wall.

Brown, the legendary San Francisco Democrat, attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors last week. In his San Francisco Chronicle column over the weekend, Brown said that “just about every member of Congress made a point of stopping by” and “the biggest topic of conversation was the prospect for a deal that would enable DACA recipients to stay in the country.”

Trump has indicated that he would sign a deal that gives a pathway to citizenship to nearly two million dreamers—nearly a million of whom are not current DACA recipients—in exchange for $25 billion in funding for the border wall and limits to chain migration. Amnesty advocates on both sides of the aisle will pay close attention to  Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening to see if he formally urges Americans to support that pathway to citizenship.

According to Brown, though the border wall is a “deal-breaker for many in California,” that is “not the with some Democrats elsewhere, especially in the South.”

“That could spell trouble for House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi if she tries to draw the line at the wall,” Brown wrote.

During the government shutdown debate, even some of the most ardent anti-wall Democrats like Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) said he was open to a border wall in exchange for a permanent DACA fix.

Gutierrez even said he would go down to the U.S.-Mexico border with bricks and mortar and help build the “offensive” wall for himself in exchange for a deal for DACA recipients.

But Pelosi, along with other Democrats, are now arguing that a pathway to citizenship for nearly two million Dreamers is not enough and resisting Trump’s proposed cuts to legal immigration. At the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Pelosi even went so far to say that Trump’s immigration plan seeks to “make America white again.”