White House Makes Hard-Line Demands for Any ‘Dreamers’ Deal
Before agreeing to provide legal status for 800,000 young immigrants brought here illegally as children, Mr. Trump will insist on the construction of a wall across the southern border, the hiring of 10,000 immigration agents, tougher laws for those seeking asylum
and denial of federal grants to “sanctuary cities,” officials said.
Also central to the effort, officials said, are legal changes
that would strip away the rights of illegal immigrants to claim asylum or make another case to stay in the United States, allowing federal officials to more quickly deport them.
WASHINGTON — The White House on Sunday delivered to Congress a long list of hard-line immigration measures
that President Trump is demanding in exchange for any deal to protect the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers, imperiling a fledgling bipartisan push to reach a legislative solution.
Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi, who declared after a White House dinner last month
that they had reached a deal with Mr. Trump to protect Dreamers, denounced the president’s demands as failing to “represent any attempt at compromise.” They called it little more than a thinly veiled effort to scuttle negotiations even before they begin in earnest.
The White House is also demanding the use of the E-Verify program by companies to keep illegal immigrants from getting jobs, an end to people bringing their extended family into the United States,
and a hardening of the border against thousands of children fleeing violence in Central America.
But a White House official said on Sunday that Mr. Trump was not open to a deal
that would eventually allow the Dreamers to become United States citizens.
Administration officials responsible for securing the border and enforcing the nation’s immigration laws told reporters on Sunday night
that the changes requested by the president were essential to protecting American workers from unfair competition and deterring what they described as a never-ending flow of illegal immigrants into the country.
