Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday slammed Democratic leadership for refusing to accept – or even hear – the President’s proposal to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
“It was disappointing to hear Speaker Pelosi reject the offer before the president gave his speech,” said Pence, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling the proposal a “non-starter” ahead of the Saturday address.
“The president is offering a solution and what we have from Democrat leadership so far is just soundbites,” the Vice President fired.
President Trump on Saturday in a televised speech from the White House offered a deal that would include several compromises for approving funding for the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, including a three-year extension for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Fox News reports,
Trump announced that he was prepared to back a three-year extension of protections for 700,000 immigrants who came to the country illegally as children and were shielded from deportation under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This, in exchange for the $5.7 billion he has requested for a barrier on the southern border with Mexico.
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The offered deal would also extend protections for 300,000 recipients of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program -- which protects immigrants from designated countries with conditions that prevent nationals from returning safely.
The proposal, which is expected to be voted on by Congress this week, would also include “$800 million for drug detection technology to secure ports of entry, 2,750 new border agents and law enforcement professionals, and 75 new immigration judges to reduce an immense backlog of asylum requests,” writes Fox News.
Democrats have rejected the proposal, calling for the government to be reopened before any deal on immigration is met.