Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday that President Trump and the White House are making "unreasonable demands" on immigration as lawmakers try to reach an agreement on a legislative fix for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.
Schumer said that while negotiations on an immigration deal were progressing, the White House hurt efforts with their list of demands for any deal, most notably a call for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Those negotiations, though difficult, have been proceeding quite well," Schumer said on the Senate floor, adding that the meeting between the top four congressional leaders and White House officials last week was "encouraging." However, he said the White House has made talks more difficult.
"Following that meeting, the White House issued a series of unreasonable demands entirely outside the scope of our ongoing negotiations about DACA and border security," Schumer said, referring to Trump's meeting with Republican senators on Thursday.
Trump called for wall funding and restrictions to visa overstays and chain migration that are backed by many within the GOP Senate conference.
Schumer said Trump's decision to make his voice heard in negotiations over the past year on various issues has harmed negotiations.
"It's part of a pattern of behavior from this White House during sensitive bipartisan negotiations," Schumer said. "Over the past year, the White House has much more frequently been a disruptive force rather than a unifying force. To throw down a list from the hard, hardline wing of the White House at the last minute is not a very fortuitous or smart thing to do."
Government funding is set to expire on Jan. 19, while DACA protections expire in March.
