DACA: Deal reached with Trump to protect ''Dreamers''

Washington, September 14

Top House and Senate Democrats have announced agreement with President Donald Trump to protect certain immigrants brought illegally to the US under the DACA programme, media reports said.

The agreement was announced in a joint statement from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

It was following a dinner the pair had with Trump on Wednesday at the White House, New York Post reported.

The statement said they and Trump have "agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that's acceptable to both sides", Fox News said.

The agreement would specifically not include Trump's long-sought border wall, the Fox report said.

It would enshrine protection for the nearly 800,000 immigrants who benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by former President Barack Obama that Trump has announced he would be ending.

The Trump administration had earlier announced it was winding down the program over the next six months, putting pressure on the Congress to pass a legislative solution.

"We had a very productive meeting at the White House with the President," the two Democrats said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, however, pushed back on that assessment: "While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to." A person briefed on the meeting said that the President and the Democratic leaders agreed to legislatively pair the bipartisan DREAM Act with some border security, excluding the wall, CNN reported.

The meeting follows an unexpected deal between Trump, Schumer and Pelosi last week that would temporarily raise the debt ceiling -- leaving the GOP and some of Trump's closest allies flabbergasted.

The deal is the latest example of Trump's sudden pivot to bipartisanship after months of railing against Democrats as "obstructionist", Fox News said.

—IANS