House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) will meet with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other congressional leaders Wednesday evening to discuss how Congress may approach restoring the protections from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program now that President Donald Trump has announced an end to the program next year, according to several reports out Tuesday night.
Politico was first to report that the meeting will take place, and the Washington Post later confirmed Ryan would meet with Pelosi about DACA, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors from deportation.
Leaders in both parties have said that they would like to restore DACA protections, but it’s not yet clear that Republicans and Democrats will be able to agree on legislation. Pelosi and Democrats are pushing for Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which would grant DACA recipients legal protections. Republicans have been less clear on what protections they would be willing to grant in legislation.
Democrats have also made it clear that they will not support tying funding for the border wall to legislation restoring DACA protections. The White House has indicated that it would like to see any legislation include provisions on border security, but a top White House aide suggested yesterday that the administration will not demand border wall funding be tied to a DACA bill.
“The President has made a commitment to the American people that he wants—he believes that a physical barrier is important to that equation of border security,” White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said Tuesday. “Whether or not that is part of a DACA equation, or whether or not that’s another legislative vehicle, I don’t want us to bind ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion on DACA impossible.”
