White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that Democrats are resisting an immigration deal and risking a partial government shutdown because they don’t want President Trump to be successful.
Mrs. Sanders said the president is “worried that Democrats’ unwillingness to actually put the country ahead of their party is what’s stalling things from moving forward, whether it’s the budget or whether it’s a deal on” immigration.
Lawmakers face a Friday deadline for approving a spending bill to keep the federal government open. Negotiations have stalled over a solution to an expiring amnesty program called DACA — or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — for young illegal immigrants.
Democrats have hardened their position since Mr. Trump last week reportedly objected to immigration from Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “s—-hole countries.” Mrs. Sanders said Democrats’ reaction after the meeting at the White House last week demonstrates their lack of commitment to solving the issue.
“I don’t think they’re using it as leverage, they’re using it as an excuse not to help this president get something accomplished, which I think is a sad day for our country,” she said. “They’re willing to throw away the progress in negotiations and not make big steps that we need to have, whether it’s funding the military supporting our government or making a deal on DACA.”
She said of Democrats on Fox News, “They’re penalizing the country.”
A small group of senators from both parties offered a proposal Friday, but Mrs. Sanders said it did not adequately address all the issues Mr. Trump wanted in a new immigration plan. She said the president wants to come to a deal, but he won’t sign a “bad deal.”
“He is very much committed to making a deal when it comes to doing something permanent with DACA, doing something for border security, end chain migration, end the visa lottery system and really make sure that we’re taking steps so that we don’t have to do this all again in two years, and we’re actually correcting he problem,” she explained.
Mrs. Sanders did say the proposal was “something to build on.”
She called the Democrats’ claim that Mr. Trump is racist “an outrageous and ludicrous excuse.”
“It seems absolutely hypocritical that now, all of a sudden, they don’t want border security, they don’t want merit-based immigration system when they supported it, voted for it, spoken about it many times in the past,” she told reporters. “Everybody wants the same thing here. It seems like it should be pretty simple. Hopefully, the Democrats will stop playing politics and start governing and getting their job done.”
• Dave Boyer contributed to this article.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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