Immigrant Advocates Slam Trump for Vowing No DACA Protections Without Border Wall

With bipartisan talks on the immigration scheduled to begin at the White House next week, immigrant advocates denounced President Donald Trump on Friday for vowing in a tweet to only allow permanent protections for recipients of the terminated Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program if Democrats agree to funding his long-promised border wall.

The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017

DACA recipents and immigrant rights advocates criticized the president for positioning Dreamers—a term often used to describe DACA recipients, because the program was inspired by the DREAM Act—as a "bargaining chip" for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and implementing other aspects of his immigration agenda.

DACA recipients are not your bargaining chip, Mr. President. #DreamActNow https://t.co/mVMozlI9Mx

— Karen Tumlin (@KarenTumlin) December 29, 2017

Let's call this what it is--the President is using the lives of 800,000 #Dreamers as bargaining chips to further his anti-immigrant agenda. https://t.co/bwUKlzlxn0

— Hispanic Caucus (@HispanicCaucus) December 29, 2017

Donald Trump put young immigrants in peril by ending DACA, and he needs to fix the problem he created by signing a bipartisan Dream Act. Dreamers are not a bargaining chip. https://t.co/kunLmQxeKt

— ACLU (@ACLU) December 29, 2017

The hopes & dreams of 800,000 #Dreamers should not be held hostage by hateful, xenophobic, & useless public policy. We urge lawmakers to reject this immediately & support a clean #DreamActNow! https://t.co/txYzuJyA0g

— National Immigration Law Center (@NILC_org) December 29, 2017

You created the #DACA crisis when you ended the program in September & then told Congress to fix it. Now you're trying obstruct them fixing it to cut family immigration despite marrying two immigrants and being born from one.https://t.co/LsasX6i5TO

— Alida Garcia (@leedsgarcia) December 29, 2017

The future of DACA recipients has been unclear since early September, when the Trump administration discontinued the federal program that shielded from deportation undocumented people who were under the age of 16 when they entered the United States. Immigrant advocates are growing increasingly weary of Democratic leaders in Congress, who have claimed to be allies of Dreamers but reneged on their promise to reinstate DACA protections through federal legislation before the end-of-year recess.

In a piece published Thursday about Dreamers' growing distrust of Democrats, VICE News reported, "since September, most undocumented youth organizations have called for what's come to be known as a 'clean DREAM Act,' meaning a replacement for DACA that stands alone—rather than one that comes in exchange for more border security and expanded immigration enforcement." 

"A clean DREAM Act was always a long shot—more a pressure tactic than a realistic demand—but, in the weeks after Trump cancelled DACA, powerful Democrats played along," VICE noted. However, "now that Democrats have backed away from a real fight, the expectations have shifted."

"It's now understood that the only way that the DREAM Act, or something close to it, is going to pass is if it's coupled with some sort of border security measure," Frank Sharry, founder of America's Voice, told VICE. "The question is whether the Republicans are going to demand so much more that it blows up the possibility of relief for Dreamers."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) brushed off Trump's tweet on Friday through her spokesman, Drew Hammill, who told Politico,"We're not going to negotiate through the press and look forward to a serious negotiation at Wednesday's meeting when we come back."

Pelosi is expected to meet with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and John Kelly, Trump's chief of staff, at the White House on Wednesday. As Politico noted, "Kelly's lead role in the negotiations is a significant break from similar meetings in recent months, when Democrats have walked away emboldened and claiming to have won concessions from Trump."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who last week criticized his colleagues in Congress for failing to vote on DACA protections before the end of the year, called on Congress to "get its act together" and "protect the Dreamers" in a tweet on Friday.

If Congress does not get its act together, we're going to have 800,000 bright young people with no legal status who will be subject to deportation and thrown out of the only country they have ever known. We must protect the DREAMers and move them towards citizenship. pic.twitter.com/owIUzkw3My

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 29, 2017