The ABC News article on Trump compromising border security is WRONG

Last night we posted exerpts from an ABC News article that characterized a White House official as suggesting that Trump would be willing to compromise on border security to ensure DACA passes in Congress.

But that’s not what the White House official said.

Read the same article from USA Today:

White House legislative director Marc Short said Tuesday that President Trump is not insisting Congress fund a wall along the southern U.S. border as part of a legislative fix to address the fate of undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.

The comments suggest the so-called DREAMers, those protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, may not become a bargaining chip in exchange for Trump’s border wall, a core campaign promise.

The fate of the DREAMers has been unclear since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced earlier this month that Trump is ending the program but giving Congress six months to find a legislative solution. Trump plans to lay out priorities for a DACA fix within the next couple of weeks, said Short.

“We are most interested in getting border security, and the president has made a commitment to the American people that he believes that a physical barrier is important to that equation of border security,” Short told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington.

“Whether or not that is part of a DACA equation or whether or not that’s another legislative vehicle, I don’t want to bind ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion on DACA impossible,” he said.

In other words they don’t want to connect the DACA legislation to the Wall legislation, to ensure they don’t create any impediments for Congress to pass DACA.

That’s all this is about. It’s not about compromising border security, or the wall, as ABC News suggested in their misleading article.

If you are still skeptical, here’s a version of the article from Reuters:

U.S. President Donald Trump will not necessarily insist on including funding for a border wall with Mexico in legislation to address protections for children brought to the United States illegally, a senior aide said on Tuesday.

White House legislative director Marc Short, speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, said the administration will lay out its priorities for a fix for the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the next couple of weeks.

While Trump remains committed to his campaign promise to build the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, “whether or not that is specifically part of a DACA package or a different legislative package, I am not going to prejudge here today,” Short said.

“I don’t want to bind ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion on DACA impossible,” Short said.

Short’s comments were the latest signal that the Republican president wants to see if he can engage Democrats as well as Republicans in trying to enact his agenda.

So yes it’s pretty clear Trump wants DACA to pass and he wants Democrats to help, which is problematic on its own.

But he’s not willing to compromise on border security to get it, as ABC News incorrectly suggested.

He simply doesn’t want funding for the wall to keep Democrats (and perhaps some Republicans) from voting for the new DACA legislation.

Just wanted to clear that up.


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