White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed in a Tuesday press briefing that a permanent solution for the DACA program.
Asked by Breitbart’s @charliespiering if the White House agrees with the conservatives who believe DACA is amnesty, @PressSec replies: “No.”
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 9, 2018
President Donald Trump told a bipartisan assembly of lawmakers Monday that a forthcoming fix on DACA “should be a bill of love. Truly. It should be a bill of love.” Trump did not elaborate on what exactly a “bill of love” would entail for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors.
Trump ended the Obama-era protections in September, extending the program until March 2017, leaving it to Congress to forge a permanent solution for the nearly 800,000 illegals. Trump has insisted any fix to the DACA program must be accompanied by funding for his promised border wall, an end to chain migration and an elimination to the diversity visa lottery program.
Sanders reiterated that the four priorities in any bill were border security, chain migration, the visa lottery, and a permanent solution for DACA. The White House also did not specify whether a permanent solution for DACA meant a pathway to citizenship or simply codified work permits and protections for the DACA recipients.
After Sen. Lindsey Graham emphasized what he believes is a need for comprehensive immigration reform and a pathway citizenship for illegal immigrants, Trump replied, “If you want to take it that further step, I’ll take the heat.”