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But the Democrats quickly rejected the proposal, which also includes millions of dollars for humanitarian aid and drug detection technologies, and called on Trump to open the government before the start of the immigration talks.
He offered a three-year stay of deportation to undocumented migrants brought to the United States as children covered by the deferred action program for child arrivals and to nationals of the United States. certain countries that qualify for temporary protection status.
"It's a common-sense compromise that both parties should adopt," said Trump, apparently seeking to present himself as a decision-maker taking the initiative to end a record close for 29 days now, leaving 800,000 federal employees without pay. .
He also seemed to offer a concession on the characteristics of his wall-border – one of his most iconic political goals. He described the wall as "a strategic deployment of physical barriers or a wall.This is not a 2000-mile concrete structure from sea to sea shining.These are steel barriers located in high priority locations ".
But the president also added to his speech his intransigent rhetoric about immigration and made questionable statements about how the wall would transform the fight against drug trafficking and violent crime in America. Such language is unlikely to draw Democrats to the compromise that Trump has declared to seek.
"The radical left can never control our borders and I will never let it happen," Trump said.
In particular, the President did not discuss the plight of federal workers without pay, with some fearing that they would not be able to make mortgage, rent or car payments, or to support them. on food banks.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi did not even wait for the speech to reject the proposal. She stated that it was "a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and does not represent, in total, an effort of good faith to restore certainty in life people".
"It is unlikely that one or the other of these provisions alone will be adopted by the House.Taken together, they are ineffective.On the one hand, this proposal does not make any difference. does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS beneficiaries that our country needs and supports, "Pelosi said in a statement.
The leader of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, said that the president's offer was not really an offer.
"It's the president who first separated the protections DACA and TPS – offering some protections in exchange for the wall is not a compromise, but more hostage taking," said Schumer in a statement.
Although this proposal was quickly rejected by the Democrats, Trump's proposal could move the policy of closure to a new stage, as various bills to reopen the government and fund the wall are debated at Capitol Hill after weeks of fruitless negotiations between the Democrats and the President.
However, his plan was as much about trying to calm the political disaster that occurred when the government shut down as it was a real attempt to convince the Democrats to reach an agreement, as he was not responding seriously. their requests and did not consult them prior to the announcement.
Democrats in the House pbaded a number of bills that would reopen the government or individual agencies, but they did not go anywhere in the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been on the sidelines since before Christmas, has expressed his intention to put pressure on the Democrats by promising to present Trump's proposal to the Senate next week. Previously, McConnell had stated that he would only propose bills with the support of the President and Democrats.
The proposal that McConnell will present this week goes beyond what the President has presented today – including some pieces designed to put Democrats in a more difficult position.
According to a source with direct knowledge, part of what will be in the final package includes:
- The seven outstanding appropriation bills, as agreed in the House-Senate conference process – include the Department of Homeland Security measure that was at the center of the total closure.
- Amendments to the Asylum Act – a law that would create an asylum application procedure in the country for minors in Central America and another that would give the administration the power to Immediately expel any minor who would cross the border without going through the process in place.
- Extension of the Violence against Women Act until the end of September.
- Expansion of the EB-5 visa program, the E-Verify program for employers to confirm the eligibility of employees for work, the Conrad 30 program for international medical school graduates, the program for immigrant workers specializing in religion and the H2B workers' return authority for DHS, until the end of the fiscal year.
"I congratulate the President for the leadership he has shown in proposing this bold solution to reopen the government, secure the border and take bipartisan measures to solve the current immigration problems," McConnell said in a statement.
"Compromise in a divided government means that everyone can not get everything they want every time, and the President's proposal reflects this well – it is a fair compromise by integrating the priorities of both sides of the House. door.
Utah Senator, Mitt Romney, who became a frequent critic of Trump after only a few weeks in the room also backed the plan.
"@POTUS has put forward a reasonable and good faith proposal that will reopen the government and contribute to border security, and I look forward to voting for it and will encourage my fellow Republicans and Democrats to do the same," wrote Romney on Twitter. .
But the far right immediately reacted by recalling criticisms from conservative experts who led Trump to withdraw from an agreement to keep the government open at the end of last year.
"Trump offers amnesty, we voted for Trump and we got Jeb!" Ann Coulter said on Twitter, referring to the former Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate, Jeb Bush.
"100 miles of border wall in exchange for the amnesty of millions of illegal immigrants.So if we grant citizenship to a BILLION EUROS, we can finally get a complete border wall," wrote Coulter in a another tweet.
Trump's proposal includes $ 800 million for urgent humanitarian badistance and $ 805 million for a drug detection technology to secure entry points, as well as additional border agents, security officials, and security guards. law enforcement and new teams of immigration judges to handle cases of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.
Although Trump raised the issue of DACA beneficiaries, the president's refusal to propose a permanent path to citizenship is a decisive factor for Democrats.
Last year, Democratic senators worked on an agreement with Republicans that provided for the granting of $ 25 billion in border funding in exchange for permanent access to citizenship for some 1.8 million dreamers. Trump moved away from the offer.
In 2017, the Trump administration announced its intention to phase out the DACA program. Trump had already announced that he would wait for the protection of the recipients after the decision of the Supreme Court.
The composition of the proposal
A source close to the talks said the president had badigned his White House advisor and advisor to the White House, Jared Kushner, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Vice President Mike Pence to work on the development of A broader compromise proposal that they could introduce to Democrats.
The three men set out to prepare a "fair and reasonable proposal", contacting many members of Congress in recent weeks, before discussing the effort with Trump in recent days.
The White House wanted to give the impression that it had a valid reason to cancel the trip of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Afghanistan, and feared that if there was no movement this weekend – no meeting, no negotiations or no speeches – it would look bad, two people familiar with the calendar told CNN.
Trump's proposal was brought together last week. White House officials worked Friday night to clarify the details and explain how Trump would expose them in his Saturday afternoon speech.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had proposed such a compromise to the president by the end of December.
Another source told CNN that the plan is modeled on the proposals that Democrats have supported and voted on in the past to pressure them to return to the negotiating table.
Although he did not develop or propose the proposal, McConnell made suggestions over the past two days on how to move the plan forward, a known source told CNN. Republican House leaders also support this initiative.
As part of a package of six spending bills, Democrats in the House will vote next week on a billion dollars to strengthen border security, according to a Democratic source.
CNN's Abby Phillip, Kaitlan Collins, Jeremy Diamond, Manu Raju, Phil Mattingly, Ashley Killough, Veronica Stracqualursi, Ryan Nobles, Sophie Tatum and Liz Stark contributed to the writing of this report.
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