Pelosi: No DACA Deal with Trump Will ‘Include Support for the Wall’
EXCERPT:
CHUCK TODD: I want to get into the details of the promise that you feel like you extracted from him on DACA. Tell me what that promise is. What is this compromise bill going to look like, in your view?
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: Well, we haven't seen the whole bill. But what the piece of it, on immigration, Chuck--Chuck Schumer, leader Schumer and I--
CHUCK TODD: Yeah, everybody is calling each other by first names these days, right? Anyway, go ahead.
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: Well, let me respectfully call him Leader Chuck Schumer. I'm so proud of his leadership. What we agreed with the president on was that the basic bill would be the Dream Act. This is a bill introduced and has nearly 200 cosponsors by Congresswoman Roybal-Allard. It is a bill that we will take forward. And it is the bill that we all support. What was to be determined was if and what there would be in terms of border security. But the essence of the bill was what the president committed. And that's what we trust him to honor.
CHUCK TODD: He committed to a pathway to citizenship for these DACA recipients?
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: He committed to--now, mind you, the pathway to citizen, is an earned pathway that is way down the road.
CHUCK TODD: I understand. But some people think there should be no path at all, that it's permanently cut off. You believe the president agreed to a pathway to citizenship with this dream act?
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: That is what is contained in the Dream Act, yes.
CHUCK TODD: And you think he will keep his word on this?
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: That's what he said.
CHUCK TODD: What's makes you trust him?
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: Well, we'll see.
CHUCK TODD: So, you're not sure?
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: We'll see, now, won't we? Well, no, I trust him on it. I'm concerned about what he might come up with in terms of border security and the rest of that. But we have said no wall. The Dream Act, no wall. And as long as we understand it's the Dream Act and no wall, what else do you have to say?
CHUCK TODD: Let me ask you something. Speaking of the wall, the president on Friday started describing the wall as the following: there are some parts of it that are already there. Sometimes there will be natural barriers, you don't need a full wall. And, oh, by the way, it's going to be see through. If you gave me that definition, I'd say, "Oh, that's a fence." Does that make you feel better now about where he's going with the wall, that he's outlining a fence that actually won't be the entire 2,000 miles?
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: No, it doesn't. But I'm more concerned about what they do in terms of enforcement. We have said to them when we protect the dreamer, we don't use them as a target to go after their parents. So, we want to say that the prosecutorial discretion that you might use in terms of deportation does not use immigration status as a crime, and that if somebody commits a felony, or this, or that. So, those are the issues that are more of a concern than his backing off of a wall. We're not supporting a wall.
