Shutdown: Schumer Claims He Offered Border Wall Concession to Trump

Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer suggested that he offered a concession on the border wall to President Donald Trump during their midday White House meeting before Democrats shut down the government’s 2018 budget at midnight.

“In exchange for strong DACA protections, I reluctantly put the border wall on the table for discussion,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor as he tried to blame Trump for the Democrats’ near-unanimous move to block a procedural vote, so preventing the GOP from passing the government budget with 51 votes.

Schumer did not provide any details on his wall offer. For example, Schumer did not say if he promised the Democratic Party’s endorsement for Trump’s $33 billion, 10-year plan for construction and operation of a wall, or if he was just willing to declare his personal support for a few billion dollars for future construction of a wall.

Many Democrats strongly oppose a border wall as a supposed “trophy” for Trump — but also because it is a symbolic distinction between the United States and other countries. Democratic groups and business groups also oppose the wall because it would hinder the northward flow of cheap-labor migrants to Democratic-run low-wage cities on the coasts.

Trump rejected his wall offer, said Schumer. “When President Trump is ready … Democrats will be ready,” he added.

In 2006, Congress voted for the construction of a 700-mile wall but later refused to provide the funding. That lack of funding has ensured the 2,000-mile border is shielded by only a short stretch of double-layer fencing.

The Democrats’ “Gang of Six” group, led by Schumer’s deputy, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, has offered an amnesty plan to Trump, which Trump rejected. The plan offered $1.5 billion in exchange for an amnesty. But the amnesty would be far bigger and more expensive than the 1986 amnesty, which was said to be for 3 million illegals.

The Gang of Six’s amnesty would cover at least 5 million foreigners, including at least 3 million young illegals, their parents, and 400,000 additional migrants, pus a large but unclear number of their chain-migration relatives. Few of the migrants would have university degrees, and so most would get more in taxpayers’ aid than they would pay in taxes.

Schumer tried to blame the shutdown on Trump and he pushed the claim that Trump does not know what he wants on immigration policy. He said:

Republican leadership can’t get to yes because President Trump refuses to. Mr. President, President Trump, if you are listening, I am urging you: please take yes for an answer.

House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi also tried to blame Trump for the Democrats’ shutdown.

I hope that we can now conduct bipartisan negotiations where we find our common ground to honor our responsibility to meet the needs of the American people. #TrumpShutdown

Read my full statement here: https://t.co/RiGSbynFqw

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) January 20, 2018

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