Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on Sunday that Democrats have currently positioned themselves in an unreasonable corner, making it impossible to come to any sort of deal on immigration. If they want to move forward, he said, they must be willing to compromise on some key Republican demands.
Cotton joined ABC New’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” to discuss any possible deal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The senator said that any sort of deal would have to include funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall as well as an end to chain migration and lottery diversity.
“The president has said all along that while President Obama acted unlawfully by giving legal status without an act of Congress, that he wants to solve this problem with a compromised piece of legislation,” Cotton said. “We have been working on this for four months. In addition to having some funding for the border wall and border security, we are also going to have to take steps to stop unskilled and low skilled immigration coming into the country. Like ending chain migration, ending the diversity lottery.”
Cotton hammered the Democrats when Stephanopoulos pointed out how Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (IL) said that the Republicans requesting $18 billion for the border wall was a “nonstarter.”
“Well, George, as you rightly said, those are Democratic demands,” Cotton continued. “Not as they’re often portrayed, that Republicans only make demands, whereas Democrats negotiate. And Senator Durbin’s DREAM Act would cost $26 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. Senator Durbin should reconsider who is making unreasonable, costly demands if he is criticizing the president for requesting $18 billion to secure our southern border that creates such a huge magnet for illegal immigration and crime and drugs.”
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