President Donald Trump warned that congressional Democrats might shut down the government over amnesty for illegal immigrants — if a budget agreement cannot be reached with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“The Democrats are really looking at something that is very dangerous for our country,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “They are looking at shutting down. … They want to have illegal immigrants pouring into our country, bring[ing] with them crime, tremendous amounts of drugs.”
When reporters asked the president, who was making his remarks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, if a shutdown was possible, he replied, “It could happen.”
Trump plans to meet with Pelosi and Schumer at the White House on Thursday to discuss a budget agreement. But he signaled that he would not include amnesty for illegal immigrants as part of his budget.
“We don’t want to have that,” he said. “We want to have a great, beautiful, crime-free country, and we want people to come into our country, but we want them to come on our basis.”
Democrats want Congress to include a path forward for DACA amnesty as part of a year-end deal to fund the government. They have also cited the need to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program and border security but not Trump’s long-promised wall.