Trump tweaks border stance to shift shutdown blame

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump made his first substantive offer of the government shutdown aimed at peeling off moderate Democrats and shifting blame with an American public that so far overwhelmingly holds him responsible for the month-long impasse.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the proposal, hours before Trump outlined it in a White House speech to the nation.
Trump said he would extend protections for three years for so-called Dreamers — young people bought to the country illegally as children — and make other concessions in exchange for his demanded $5.7 billion towards a border wall.
The offer doesn’t signal the shutdown is any closer to ending, but it may begin a serious dialogue — or it could be a strategically-timed attempt to put the ball back in the Democrats’ court, days before federal workers are scheduled to miss another paycheck. White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney mused to reporters that he is “very curious” to see how
Democrats explain a “no” vote on Trump’s plan under those circumstances.
Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio said he hoped it “will spark more good-faith negotiations so we can resolve the current impasse on border security and reopen the government.”

Senate Vote
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised he would bring the plan to a vote in Republican-controlled chamber by the end of the week, forcing members to take a public stand on the new plan. Vice President Mike Pence told reporters at the White House that work on the plan would start in Congress.
Trump’s proposal and the Senate vote McConnell is engineering will test Democrats’ unity and the position party leaders have maintained for weeks: that the government shutdown must end before any negotiations on Trump’s border wall demand.
Moving to demonstrate Democrats’ commitment to enforcing immigration laws, Pelosi said the House will vote on its own border security plan next week, making the point that it will offer a stark contrast with no new border wall money but could help start negotiations.
Republicans also face pressure: on their right flank, many immigration hardliners were quick to criticise Trump’s plan as “amnesty” for people who entered the country illegally. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah said he looked forward to “being able to offer amendments,” suggesting the path forward is far from simple.
Trump portrayed his plan in a 13-minute televised address as a way to end a partial government shutdown now into its fifth week. “I’m here today to break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward,” Trump said.
Still, much of the speech had the same hard-edged tone as his Oval Office address earlier in the month. He spoke in dark terms of migrant women being raped on their journey through Mexico to the US border, and tied undocumented immigrants to crime and drugs.
The wall would not stretch from sea to sea, he said, but would be strategic and in selected locations, including 115 miles now under construction, and 230 more miles this year.