In a flurry of tweets Sunday, President Trump said he was pulling a DACA deal off the table and demanded Mexico help in deterring illegal border crossers or else he’d nix NAFTA.
The president fumed over Senate Democrats blocking his immigration agenda and funds for a border wall, calling for Republicans to end the filibuster rule that has allowed the chamber’s Democratic minority to hold up his plans.
“Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming,” he tweeted. “Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”
Mr. Trump voiced his outrage amid reports of a caravan of more than 1,000 migrants crossing Mexico for the U.S. border, where they will demand Easter asylum. Mexico reportedly has not attempted to stop the caravan, which was organized by Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders.
Later Sunday, as Mr. Trump arrived at Easter services, he told reporters that Democrats “blew it” when they had a chance for a deal to permanently fix the temporary deportation amnesty known as DACA.
“They had a great chance, the Democrats blew it. They had a great, great chance,” he said outside Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida.
The president is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
Mr. Trump had offered to put 1.8 million illegal immigrant “Dreamers” on a path to citizenship in return for funding for a border wall and restrictions on some legal immigration.
Democrats refused the bargain.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly called for an end to the Senate filibuster to enable Republicans to force through his agenda. But those calls have met a unanimous opposition from the Republican leadership that fears using the so-called nuclear option that would eliminate the power afforded to the minority.
That power, however, has enabled Democrats to block most of the funding for a border wall that was that was Mr. Trump’s top campaign promise.
Turning to Mexico, the president accused America’s southern neighbor of standing aside to let illegal immigrants and illegal drugs flow freely through its country and into the U.S.
“Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws,” he tweeted. “They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!”
In a flow-up tweet, he added: “These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!”
Outside the church in Palm Beach, Mr. Trump expanded on his criticism of Mexico.
“Mexico has got to help us at the border. If they’re not going to help us at the border, it’s a very sad thing. Mexico has got help us at the border,” he said. “And a lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA.”
He continued, “And we’re going to have to really see. They had a great chance, the Democrats blew it. They had a great, great chance. But we’ll have to take a look. But Mexico has got to help us at the border. They flow right through Mexico. They send them into the United States. Can’t happen that way anymore.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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