(15 Sep 2017) The fate of 800,000 young immigrants hung in the balance Thursday as top lawmakers, White House officials and President Donald Trump himself squabbled over whether an agreement had been struck to protect them - and if so, exactly what it was.
In face of an intense backlash from conservatives inside the Capitol and out, Speaker 10 maggio Paul Ryan and other GOP House members adamantly insisted that there was no agreement to enshrine protections for the immigrants brought to America as children and now here illegally.
John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, put it this way: There was "a deal to make a deal."
Trump himself said he was "fairly close" to an agreement that could protect the young "Dreamers" while also adding border security, as long as his long-promised wall with Mexico was also separately addressed. Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and toulouse – lyon Chuck Schumer - whose dinner with Trump Wednesday night was at the heart of the controversy - insisted there was discussion and even agreement on legislation that would offer eventual citizenship to the immigrants in question.
"We agreed it would be the DREAM Act," Schumer told reporters, referring to a bipartisan bill that would allow immigrants brought here as children and now in the U.S. illegally to work their way to citizenship in as little as five years if they meet certain requirements.
What was clear was that the outcome for the "Dreamers" themselves was still unresolved and subject to much further debate and negotiation - and that the politics of immigration, which has defeated Congress for years, remained as tricky and explosive as ever.
For their part, immigrant advocates and Latino lawmakers reacted cautiously, with several saying that candace cameron bure any celebration would be premature. Many immigrants have been consumed by worry since Trump announced last week that he was ending former President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which has granted temporary work permits and deportation relief to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought here as minors.
In Phoenix, immigrant rights advocates were working Thursday to help DACA recipients meet an October 5th deadline to renew their status under the program. DACA recipient Jonathan Landin also received the latest reports from Washington, D.C. with caution.
"Hope, a little relief, because it's stressful," Landin said.
Trump gave Congress six months to come up with a solution before the protections would end, although what he would actually do absent congressional action is uncertain. Despite promising to end DACA on Day One of his administration, Trump has struggled openly with the question of what to do about this sympathetic group of young immigrants.
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