The White House aggressively tried to deflect responsibility for the failure even though it was Trump who ended the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last fall. Trump aides accused Democrats of rejecting White House proposals in order to use the issue as “a political weapon” ahead of the midterm elections. Democrats want to use immigrants “as pawns in their game,” White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short told reporters. The upshot was that Trump stood to win just $1.6 billion in the spending bill that the White House said would go toward 110 miles of border wall. “But we couldn’t reach an agreement with Trump and the Republicans on the DACA and dreamers side.

Source: Washington Post March 22, 2018 23:19 UTC