Democrat senators in the United States (US) have rejected Trump’s offer to grant temporary protection to young immigrants living in the country in return for a bipartisan agreement to secure $5.7 billion for the Mexican border wall.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the deal, insisting that the president ends the government shutdown before they can resume negotiations on the wall.
Pelosi was quoted by CNN as having said: “It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the house, they are a non-starter. This proposal does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS recipients that our country needs and supports.”
“It was the president who single-handedly took away Daca and TPS protections in the first place. Offering some protections back in exchange for the wall is not a compromise but more hostage taking,” Schumer was quoted by Reuters.
On his part, US Vice-President Mike Pence dismissed the Democrat’s claims that the concessions were just a mere “amnesty” to the immigrants and urged the Democrats to review the legislation before they reject it altogether.
“We hope once people get past the initial statements and initial reaction, when they really look at this legislation, when it comes to the floor of the Senate, they’ll see it as an effort by the president to take ideas from both parties,” he said.
