A White House official had few details of a potentially explosive Wednesday dinner meeting between President Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that may have involved a deal to shield from deportation 800,000 illegal aliens who were granted permits and temporary amnesty under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
News exploded Wednesday night as media outlets began reporting that Trump promised quick action from Republican legislators to protect the illegal aliens covered under the Obama administration’s DACA program.
A White House official provided the following statement to reporters on the meeting that was circulated around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday evening:
President Donald Trump had a constructive working dinner with Senate and House Minority Leaders, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi as well as Administration officials to discuss policy and legislative priorities. These topics included tax reform, border security, DACA, infrastructure and trade. This is a positive step toward the President’s strong commitment to bipartisan solutions for the issues most important to all Americans. The Administration looks forward to continuing these conversations with leadership on both sides of the aisle.
Pelosi and Schumer were more detailed in their account of the meeting: “We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides,” read a portion of a joint statement reported in the Washington Times.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana.
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