Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday that Democrats need to make some concessions in order to get a deal on DACA since President Trump has already made the major concession of allowing the program to continue in some form.
“The president has already made his fundamental concession to their condition. He is willing to give an amnesty to hundreds of thousands, if not a million or more, illegal immigrants who, by and large, were brought here through no fault of their own. That’s his concession to this condition,” Mr. Cotton, Arkansas Republican, said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”
Mr. Cotton was part of the White House meeting last week where the president reportedly made controversial comments about Haiti, El Salvador and African nations, calling them “s—-hole countries.” Mr. Trump has denied making such comments.
The senator couldn’t say if Democrats came to the meeting with the intention of coming to a consensus, but he said the proposal from what he calls the “gang of amnesty” is not realistic.
“On all of the so-called concessions that ‘gang of amnesty’ made, there was no concession whatsoever,” Mr. Cotton said.
“It probably set us back from trying to find a deal,” he added.
A group of six senators from both sides of the aisle came up with an initial proposal to put a program in place for recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program — known as DACA — as well as other immigration policy changes. The proposal was seen as a first step toward a deal and not a final proposal from lawmakers.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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