President Trump told Hispanic voters Friday that he and his party are “on your side” and complained that Democrats were the roadblock to granting illegal immigrant “Dreamers” a more permanent protection here in the U.S.
He spoke just hours after he’d threatened to veto a massive spending bill — risking sending the government into a shutdown — because it didn’t include protections for Dreamers, and because it only gave him a fraction of the money he sought to build a border wall.
Mr. Trump told Dreamers Democrats were “using you” as a political bargaining chip, but wouldn’t bite on any of several White House offers to sustain the DACA program.
“The Republicans are on your side,” the president said.
After Mr. Trump’s early-morning veto threat, immigrant-rights groups were furious, saying it was Mr. Trump’s fault that DACA recipients were in limbo because he pushed through a phaseout of the program.
They also said he could have accepted one of the immigration plans Democrats offered last month, during the Senate’s immigration debate.
“Perhaps Trump now realizes his staff have undermined him by pushing for additional enforcement measures at every turn,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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