DEMS/DREAMERS/GOP/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump and top aides have urged conservative Republicans in Congress to craft legislation protecting ‘Dreamers’ brought illegally to the United States as children, a move that could jeopardize efforts to work with Democrats on the issue.
Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and other officials have reached out to more than a dozen Republicans, including some of the loudest anti-immigration voices in Congress.
The consultations followed a dinner Trump held earlier this month with the top two congressional Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi.
The president discussed with the two Democrats legislation to shield from deportation roughly 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers.
In comments that angered Trump’s conservative political base, White House officials said Trump would not necessarily insist on funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border as a condition for helping the Dreamers. Trump’s pledge to build a border wall was a central theme of his 2016 presidential campaign.”
-Richard Cowan and Jeff Mason, “Trump plays left and right in drive to protect ‘Dreamers’,” Reuters, Sept. 28, 2017 06:49pm