Wednesday, President Donald Trump said that he will offer young immigrants a citizenship, only if he gets billions of dollars to pay for the border wall as well as other border security measures.
Trump’s immigration plan will be released on Monday, for which the president explained that DACA recipients will be offered citizenship in the following period of 10-12 years.
“We’re going to morph into it. It’s going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years,” Trump stated.
Later a senior administration official said that the citizenship is still in discussion, and probably the young immigrants would have to meet certain conditions before gaining it.
According to The Hill, the official added the offer only applies to the nearly 690,000 immigrants who benefit from the Obama-era DACA program that Trump canceled last fall. Those people are allowed to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
In order for the program to continue, Trump asks for 30 billion dollars, of which 25 billion are for the wall and 5 billion dollars for the additional border security measures. The White House also said that Trump plans to limit family-based immigration and end or overhaul the diversity visa lottery.
“Tell them not to worry about it, we’re going to solve the problem. Now, it’s up to the Democrats, but they should not be concerned,” Trump said reassuring immigrants that solution will be found.
The president also said the March 5 deadline when DACA expires can be prolonged if no deal is reached till then, adding “I certainly have the right to do that, if I want.”
Trump’s new statement is the clearest to date regarding his wishes on the immigration deal and is a response to both Democrats and Republicans saying that Trump has not been very clear about what he wants.
The Hill reports that the trade-off floated by President Trump, wall funding in exchange for DACA protections sounds very similar to the deal that Democratic Senator Charles Schumer offered him last week, before the three-day government shutdown. Schumer portrayed the 25 billion dollars offer of wall funding as a major concession, but on Tuesday declared that money is now “off the table.”
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