Senate immigration talks fall apart
By Jordain Carney - 01/10/19 03:18 PM EST
A last-ditch effort by a group of Senate Republicans to reach a deal to end the partial government shutdown and clinch a long-stalled immigration deal quickly unraveled on Thursday.
Senators said their talks were basically dead, underscoring the uphill climb any potential agreement has amid the entrenched border fight.
“I think we're stuck. I just don't see a pathway forward,†Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters. “I don't know who to talk to and I don't know what else to do.â€
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) after a closed-door Senate GOP lunch said the talks had “run into some difficulties,†and blamed intransigence on the part of President Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“It's very difficult when we're dealing with people who do not want to budge at all in their positions, and that's the president and Speaker Pelosi,†Collins said. “They're each very dug in on their position, and that's made this very difficult.â€
Trump stormed out of a meeting at the White House on Wednesday with Pelosi and other congressional leaders after the Speaker said she would not agree to provide money for his wall on the Mexican border if the government were reopened.
Collins and Graham are part of a group of senators who have been in talks about a deal that would include border wall funding and a deal for “Dreamers†as a way to break the shutdown stalemate, which is currently on its 20th day.
The setback comes less than 24 hours after the group of senators — which included Collins, Graham and Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) — met with White House adviser Jared Kushner and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the Appropriations Committee chairman.
The group of moderate senators conducted more shuttle diplomacy earlier Thursday as they tried to get buy-in for their agreement.
The group met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and then Vice President Pence at the Capitol on Thursday.
But Pence appeared to take an agreement on the Obama-era Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program off the table until the administration gets a final court ruling.
The administration announced in 2017 that it was ending the program, which allows certain immigrants who do not have legal status to stay to work and go to school in the United States.
“We feel confident the Supreme Court will find DACA to have been unconstitutional. At that time, he believes there will be an opportunity for us not only address the issue affecting the Dreamers, but also a range of immigration issues,†Pence told reporters during a briefing at the Capitol.
The shutdown stalemate comes as Trump has demanded more than $5 billion for the border wall and is taking a trip to the southern border on Thursday to try to build public support for his position.
Democrats have pointed to $1.3 billion as their cap in any talks. House Democrats passed a package last week that would reopen the roughly quarter of the government impacted by the shutdown, but it was blocked in the Senate on Thursday.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/424792-senate-immigration-talks-fall-apart