Trump proposes a path to citizenship for 1.8 million 'Dreamers' in exchange for billions in wall funding

President Donald Trump.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Donald Trump's immigration plan emerged after a conference call with White House officials on Thursday.
The plan will include a pathway to citizenship for nearly 1.8 million immigrants that are either enrolled in or qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
The plan also includes $25 billion for funding of a proposed wall along the Mexican border and changes to legal immigration programs.

President Donald Trump's immigration plan set to be unveiled next week combines key requests from Democrats and hardline conservatives, according to details that emerged Thursday.

The outlines of the plan, set to be released Monday, were shared on a conference call with White House officials. Multiple reports from the conference call delved into the framework of the proposed deal.

The proposal's key tenets include a codification of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program, which protects from deportation nearly 800,000 unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the US as minors. The plan would give these recipients, as well as immigrants who qualify but do not participate in the program, a pathway to citizenship.

“The president has indicated a willingness to extend citizenship to 1.8 million individuals as part of this immigration reform package,” a White House official told Politico. “That would be the DACA population, plus individuals who failed to apply for DACA but otherwise met the requirements, as well as adjustments in timeframe that would bring the total maximum population size to 1.8 million.”

DACA codification has been a central demand from Democrats for any immigration deal, since the program is set to expire on March 5. Trump announced in September that he would end the program, but gave Congress six months to settle the issue through legislation.

But in a nod to the most conservative immigration hawks in the Republican Party, the plan proposes changes to legal immigration programs, as well as $25 billion in funding for a wall along the Mexican border.

The major aspects of the deal include:

A pathway to citizenship for roughly 1.8 million DACA recipients or potential DACA recipients.
$25 billion in funding for Trump's long-promised wall along the US border with Mexico.
Increased funding to hire more border patrol agents and immigration judges.
A curtailing of "chain migration," officially known as the family reunification policy of the immigration system. The new plan would allow immigrants to sponsor their immediate families but not other family members.
Termination of the diversity visa lottery program.
Faster deportation for immigrants not from countries bordering the US.

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