Compromise bid to end government shutdown

By Arul Louis

With an eye on political moderates, President Donald Trump has offered to bargain temporary status for nearly a million illegal immigrants for the $5.7 million he wants in the budget for his border wall, but the deal to end the partial government shutdown was shot down by the Democratic Party leadership. After swearing-in a group of immigrants as citizens at the Oval Office on Saturday, he said he would give a three-year reprieve from deportation for 700,000 young people who were brought into the US as children and 300,000 illegal immigrants from Nepal and certain other countries that have faced natural disasters or violent upheavals. He also promised to pursue immigration reforms after the shutdown crisis was resolved and hold weekly bipartisan meetings to fashion “a great product, a product we can be proud of”.

Democrat leaders have ruled out any compromise and insist on an end to the shutdown before there can be negotiations. Even before he spoke, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected any proposal he would make saying they would be a “non-starter”. The Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the proposals “ineffective and one-sided” and accused him of taking the one million as hostages.

The government remained paralyzed except for its vital functions as the partial government shutdown that entered its 30th day on Sunday with most government employees going without their paychecks since January 11 and nearly 800,000 of them on temporary layoff. Trump has demanded that the budget should include $5.7 billion for his border barrier, which the Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, have refused. Because of the stalemate there is no budget and no money for most government operations. His first formal offer of concessions was aimed at the moderates in both parties who were looking for a path to compromise. Trump offered a scaled-down vision of the border wall that he had promised in his election campaign, saying, “This is not a 2,000 mile concrete structure from sea to sea. These are steel barriers in high priority locations.” (IANS)

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