President Donald Trump proposed a compromise plan to reopen the government and get funding for his promised border wall on Saturday.
The president offered to give Democrats a three-year extension of work permits for 700,000 DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients and 300,000 Temporary Protected Status immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion for 230 miles of physical barriers on the Southern border.
“This is not a 2000 mile concrete structure from sea-to-sea,” Trump said. “These are steel barriers in high priority locations. It will be done quickly.”
Trump also promised $800 million in humanitarian aid, $805 million in port and border screening security, 2,000 new border agents, and 75 new immigration judge teams to handle cases at the border.
The president delivered his remarks in the Diplomatic room at the White House, restating the problems that the country faces with the current broken immigration system.
Trump presented his plan as a way to “break the logjam” by building a compromise with Democrats, address the immediate crisis at the border and reopen the federal government. The federal government has been partially shut down for 29 days.
He again highlighted the difficulties that migrants face as they try to take advantage of a broken immigration system, highlighting the dangers of the journey to the Southern border.
“I want this to end, it’s got to end now,” he said. “These are not talking points, these are the heartbreaking realities.”
Trump said that McConnell was in support of the proposed compromise and would hold a vote in the Senate later next week.
He described his plan as “straightforward, fair, reasonable, and common sense with lots of compromise” and said that it was only the beginning of larger immigration reform in his second term.
Trump also promised to hold weekly bi-partisan meetings at the White House to work on a larger immigration reform effort with Democrats, if an immediate deal could be made.
“We can do a finished product, a great product, a product that we can all be proud of having to do with that elusive immigration problem,” Trump said.