Pelosi rejects Trump deal on Dreamers

US President Donald Trump yesterday put a new offer to Democrats to break the deadlock that has shut down government.

US President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House yesterday. Picture: AP

US President Donald Trump yesterday put a new offer to Democrats to break the deadlock that has shut down the US government by offering temporary protection for some immigrants in exchange for funding for his border wall.

But in an address from the White House, Mr Trump refused to give ground on his key demand that any spending bill include $US5.7 billion ($7.9bn) for a wall — a demand that has been the key sticking point with Democrats.

His new plan was rejected immediately by Democrats, with House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi releasing a statement ahead of Mr Trump’s address saying the proposal was a “compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good-faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives”.

“It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the house, and taken together, they are a non-starter,” she said.

Mr Trump said his proposal was a “compassionate response to the ongoing tragedy on our southern border”, describing it as “straightforward, fair, reasonable and common sense”.

“A common sense compromise both parties should embrace,” he said.

Mr Trump’s move to sweeten his offer was designed to increase pressure on the Democrats to resume negotiations over the shutdown, with polls showing most Americans blame the President for the impasse.

In his new proposal, Mr Trump offered a three-year halt to his efforts to end deferred action for childhood arrivals, an Obama-era program that offered temporary protections for about 700,000 Dreamers, the children of illegal immigrants. Democrats have called for permanent protection for Dreamers, but Mr Trump’s offer expires after three years.

The President also offered a three-year suspension of his push to end the program of temporary protection status holders. This affects about 300,000 Latin American and African immigrants who were allowed to came to the US after disasters in their homeland.

In response, Ms Pelosi said Mr Trump’s plan was unacceptable because it “does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS recipients that our country needs and supports”.

In his address, Mr Trump reasserted his belief that a border wall was not “immoral” as Democrats have called it. He said the $US5.7bn in initial funding would not build a wall from ocean to ocean but would allow for an extra 370km of wall in areas where such a barrier would be most effective.

“The radical Left can never control our borders,” he said. “Walls are not immoral … a steel barrier will help stop illegal immigration.”

The President said his plan, if backed by Democrats, would immediately reopen the federal government, which has been shut for 29 days, the longest on record. Mr Trump said if the plan was passed he would follow it up with weekly bipartisan meetings at the White House to develop a permanent and more coherent strategy on immigration and border security.

“Our immigration system has been badly broke for a very long time,” he said. “We are now living with the consequences and they are tragic. I will never forget that my first duty and ultimate loyalty is to you the American people.”

Speaking earlier, Mr Trump said his rift with Ms Pelosi was not personal.

“She’s being controlled by the radical Left, which is a problem,” he said.

Mr Trump abruptly postponed Ms Pelosi’s six-day congressional visit to Europe and Afghanistan last week in retaliation for her public request for him to postpone his state of the union address later this month if the government remained closed. Ms Pelosi accused the President of putting herself and fellow congress members in danger by publicising their plan to visit US troops in Afghanistan.

“You never give advance notice of going into a battle area — you just never do it,” Ms Pelosi said.

“Perhaps the President’s inexperience didn’t have him understand that protocol. The people around him, though, should have known that, because that’s very dangerous.”

The partial government shutdown has forced 800,000 federal workers to go without pay since December 22.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia