With the three-day, partial U.S. government shutdown ended, President Donald Trump says he is turning his attention to resolving immigration issues, but is not sure it can be done quickly.
The Republican Trump boasted Democratic senators caved in on their demands that about 800,000 young illegal immigrants be protected from deportation as part of a new stop-gap spending measure that funds government operations through February 8.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell agreed the deportation issue would be considered by then, or shortly after, to keep the immigrants brought to the United States as children by their parents from being returned to their native countries. But the issue is linked to Trump's demands that Congress also approve funding for a wall along the 3,200-kilometer southern border with Mexico and stiffen other U.S. immigration policies to thwart more illegal immigration.
Trump tweeted on Tuesday that Democrats learned that shutting down the government doesn't work.
Earlier, Trump said the end of the shutdown was a "Big win for Republicans, but that another win is needed for everyone, including the immigrants covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by former President Barack Obama.Trump ended it in September, but gave Congress until March 5 to weigh in on the issue.
Trump has periodically expressed support for letting the immigrants stay in the United States, the only home country many of the Dreamers, as their advocates often call them, have known. But he also has adopted calls for tough measures to end a visa lottery program he says has allowed other countries to send their worst citizens to the United States and a program allowing immigrants already in the United States to later bring in other family members as well.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told CNN, "We want a large agreement, a big deal. You have to deal with this holistically, the entire issue of immigration at one time."
He said Trump's position on protecting the young immigrants from deportation "depends on what we get in exchange. What do we get for border security? What do we get for a wall?"
