Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer was accused of President Donald Trump on Friday for trying to scramble the deal meant to help the young immigrants that are protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“DACA has been made increasingly difficult by the fact that Cryin’ Chuck Schumer took such a beating over the shutdown that he is unable to act on immigration!” Trump wrote on Twitter from Air Force One during his flight back to Washington from Davos, Switzerland.
According to The Hill, the comments came in response to Schumer’s criticism of a new White House proposal on immigration reform, which would offer a pathway to citizenship to as many as 1.8 million immigrants who are covered by DACA or are eligible.
Meanwhile, Schumer wrote on Twitter calling the plan a wish list for “anti-immigrant hardliners.”
“While @realDonaldTrump finally acknowledged that the Dreamers should be allowed to stay here and become citizens, he uses them as a tool to tear apart our legal immigration system and adopt the wish list that anti-immigration hardliners have advocated for years,” he wrote.
Schumer was referring to the large cuts for the family-based immigration program.
Trump’s new plan says that U.S. citizens and legal permanent resident won’t be able to sponsor additional family members for immigration, only their spouses, and minor children will be allowed.
Democrats say that the president’s plan will drastically reduce the levels of legal immigration, and according to them that is too high a price to pay in order to save the DACA program.
The Hill reports that lawmakers are rushing to reach a compromise by February 8, when government funding is set to expire. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will hold an open debate on the issue if a deal is not reached before then.
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