WASHINGTON — Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer on Tuesday pulled back an offer of $25 billion for President Trump’s long-promised southern border wall, as lawmakers scrambled to figure out how to push a deal to protect 700,000 or more so-called Dreamer immigrants from deportation.
Schumer made the offer last Friday in a last-ditch effort to head off a government shutdown, then came scalding criticism from his party’s liberal activist base that Democrats had given up too easily in reopening the government without more concrete promises on immigration.
“We’re going to have to start on a new basis, and the wall offer’s off the table,” Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday.
The shutdown battle – settled mostly on Trump’s terms – complicated the already difficult search for an immigration pact: Republican hard-liners appeared emboldened, while Democrats absorbed withering criticism from progressives. Neither development seemed likely to push the combatants toward the compromises needed to produce a bill that can pass both the tea party-driven House and the more pragmatic Senate.
Still, there were fresh signs of a willingness to keep hunting for a solution, with a flurry of meetings on Capitol Hill and an assessment from White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that “I don’t think they’re that far apart.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he’d been to three meetings Tuesday about immigration. “I know there’s a lot of skepticism around here and not much trust,” he said, “but I do believe that there is a bona fide bipartisan concern about getting this done.”
Even if the Senate can come up with the votes to pass a plan, Democrats fear there is little chance such a bill would gain the support of House Republicans.
“There were no commitments made in the House” as legislators worked to end the government shutdown, House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana said Monday, warning against any “amnesty” measure.
Trump weighed in Tuesday via Twitter: “Nobody knows for sure that the Republicans & Democrats will be able to reach a deal on DACA by February 8, but everyone will be trying….with a big additional focus put on Military Strength and Border Security. The Dems have just learned that a Shutdown is not the answer!”
Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Schumer had promised a $25 billion figure for the wall and other border security measures, though not all of that would have been immediate funding. He called Schumer’s withdrawal of the offer “a step backward.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has committed to trying to reach a deal on immigration and key budget issues by Feb. 8, though Cornyn said Monday that “strikes me as highly difficult.”
Instead, the Senate appeared more likely to start a freewheeling debate next month.
“Whoever gets 60 votes wins,” said McConnell.
And it remained unclear precisely who was taking the lead in the negotiating.
“If you had a tattoo for every group that’s forming, you’d have an arm full of them,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was working to bring together a new bipartisan group of senators to reach an agreement.
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