Anti-immigration hardliners Stephen Miller and John Kelly worked furiously to sink the DACA deal
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Before Sens. Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham could get to the White House last Thursday to relay their bipartisan deal on DACA and border security to Donald Trump, two Trump aides took a hatchet to the deal, which had originally been received quite well by TrAnti-immigration hardliners Stephen Miller and John Kelly worked furiously to sink the DACA deal
Before Sens. Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham could get to the White House last Thursday to relay their bipartisan deal on DACA and border security to Donald Trump, two Trump aides took a hatchet to the deal, which had originally been received quite well by Trump. The Washington Post reports: In the late morning, before Durbin and Graham arrived, Kelly — who had already been briefed on the deal — talked to Trump to tell him that the proposal would probably not be good for his agenda, White House officials said. Kelly, a former secretary of homeland security, has taken an increasingly aggressive and influential role in the immigration negotiations, calling lawmakers and meeting with White House aides daily — more than he has on other topics. He has “very strong feelings,” in the words of one official. But he’s not a lone voice. Trump in recent weeks has also been talking more to conservatives such as Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on immigration, these people said. [...] “Once we saw what was going on in the meeting a few days earlier, we were freaked out,” said immigration hard-liner Mark Krikorian, who runs the Center for Immigration Studies. Trump, he said, “has hawkish instincts on immigration, but they aren’t well-developed, and he hasn’t ever been through these kind of legislative fights.” After the Thursday meeting, Trump began telling allies that the proposal was a “terrible deal for me,” according to a friend he spoke with, and that Kelly and other aides and confidants were correct in advising him to back away. The Center for Immigration Studies, which clearly has its hooks deep inside the White House, has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Read more