WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a Wednesday press conference that, despite President Trump’s seesawing on the issue, she trusts “he will honor that commitment” to save DREAMers from deportation “because the American people want him to do so.”
“I have confidence that he believes in the DREAMers, he told us that, we said we have shared values when we spoke with him, with Leader Schumer and the three of us speaking together on this,” Pelosi said, referring to last month’s “Chuck and Nancy” dinner with Trump to discuss his revocation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other issues.
“I’ve been in Congress since Ronald Reagan was president, just since the end of his tenure. Ronald Reagan was great on immigration, even when Congress acted, he said, ‘you didn’t do enough. I’m going to have Family Fairness.’ He protected more people under his Family Fairness agenda — a higher percentage of people than President Obama did with protecting parents. Then George Herbert Walker Bush, George Bush followed in his footsteps protecting people — Republican Presidents,” Pelosi said.
“Of course, Democrats were there, but I’m just talking about Republicans. George W. Bush couldn’t get his caucus to follow him but all three of these presidents in recent history, and we could go back further, but I’m just talking in recent history, all three of the Republican presidents have strongly acknowledged the value of immigration to America,” she added.
Pelosi called for congressional action on a DREAM Act to cover DACA beneficiaries before the end of the year. “Many Republicans would vote for this if only they had the chance,” she said.
“All we need is a vote. All we need is vote. And do you know why? Because the DREAMers have conducted this crusade for America in such a dignified way and that’s why I think, as I said the president supports the DREAMers because the American people support the DREAMers and Republicans hear that in their districts,” she said. “So again, I’ve like to do that before Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving! We must do it before the end of the year.”
The House Dem leader insisted “we’re not, we’re not, we’re not” leveraging DREAMers with immigration enforcement riders in negotiations.
“We think we have a responsibility to protect our border and there are some things we can do working together that does not include increased enforcement internally in our country,”she said. “That’s a bad deal all around, it’s un-American and we will fight that.”
“No wall,” Pelosi added.
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