President Trump provided Democrats a very (very) generous offer on immigration Thursday. In exchange for $25 billion to build his border wall, Trump offered a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who have been living in the U.S. since they were children. That number is double the amount of DREAMers currently signed up for DACA. Again, very generous.
It's still not good enough for some liberal Democrats.
Democratic senators from Illinois Luis Gutierrez and Dick Durbin are among those who believe Trump and the GOP are using this new immigration deal to hold Dreamers "hostage."
The president simply can't be trusted, according to Gutierrez, days after he charged the administration of using DACA recipients as "ransom" for the border wall funding.
President can't be trusted to keep his word or maintain position for more than a couple of hours. Every time hardliners inside and outside White House shift his position, we get farther from a deal to serve the will the American people to give Dreamers a way to live here legally. https://t.co/VhrbUfraza
— Luis V. Gutierrez (@RepGutierrez) January 25, 2018
Here was Durbin's way of saying "no thanks."
My statement on the White House immigration proposal: pic.twitter.com/Xh1YKNtRYY
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) January 26, 2018
Sen. Tom Cotton's (R-AR) response? Oh please.
Dick, please. @realDonaldTrump is willing to give citizenship to 2.5x DACA beneficiaries, as long as we responsibly stop the future illegal immigration & unfair chain migration it could encourage. Get real or sit on sidelines of issue you've championed for 17 years. https://t.co/5P0xVHTicH
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) January 26, 2018
We may expect this from partisan politicians. But surely DREAMer advocacy groups are open to Trump's offer?
Statement from DREAMer advocacy group United We Dream: "Let’s call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 25, 2018