Colorado Senators React To DACA Negotiations Stall
By Joel Hillan
DENVER (CBS4) - President Trump tweeted on Sunday that a deal on DACA, the program that protects undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, was "probably dead."
He blamed Democrats for the breakdown in negotiations.
Both of Colorado's U.S. Senators were on the Sunday morning shows, each saying a bipartisan bill on immigration reform is still possible.
Republican Sen. Cory Gardner joined CBS' Face the Nation Sunday morning to answer questions about a bipartisan immigration reform effort in the Senate.
"What we're dealing with right now are children who were brought here as children, through a very young age, no fault of their own. That's what we can address. We can address the border wall system that the president talked about," said Gardner. "We can address this issue of chain migration, as the president says, and we have done that. We've broken or stopped or put an end to the diversity visa lottery that the president had asked for. That was a bipartisan solution."
Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and was also hopeful a bipartisan solution could be reached.
"What I say is that he ought to look at the compromise that Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham and the rest of us have reached. Because it is a combination of border security, $1.6 billion that the president asked for his wall, in addition to $1.1 billion for border security," said Bennet. "And at the same time, we're saying that we should put the DREAMERS on a pathway to citizenship. There are other compromises as well. This was a hard-fought negotiation over four months. I think that it's a middle-of-the-road approach that I hope other colleagues will support."
Both agreed this is part of the work the American people sent them to do and expect them to accomplish.
Democrats have threatened to shut down the government if a compromise on DACA is not reached.
Joel Hillan anchors CBS4 This Morning on weekends as well as reports stories for CBS4 News at 5 and 6 p.m. Follow Joel on Twitter @joelhillan.