How is the White House reacting to Monday news of a political deal between Republican and Democrats to end the government shutdown and put a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) solution on the table? White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said the following on Monday night during PBS News Hour:
“The President is willing to have a conversation about citizenship, Judy,” Short told anchor Judy Woodruff. “I think, in addition to that, and so far in the negotiations where we’ve moved is that Democrats have said that the 690,000 people who have those DACA permits —they’re aged 16 to 36— who have those DACA work permits, that has been the discussion so far. The Democrats have asked us to expand that to include others in there, including some that get closer to the number of the full Dream Act. We’ve said we’re willing to do that, Judy. So we think there’s actually a lot of significant progress on our side on things that they’ve asked for. In addition, it seems the Democrats have had a lot more willingness to talk about the needs we have on border security that Customs and Border Patrol has said is needed to help us secure the southern border. So we see progress.”