Rep. Joe Crowley (D., N.Y.) on Wednesday argued that President Donald Trump made his immigration deal more unacceptable by offering to legalize a greater number of illegal immigrants.
Crowley started out by saying Trump should stay out of negotiations over recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and allow Congress to compromise. Chuck Todd pressed Crowley on that formulation by bringing up the “heated activists” on the left who want Democrats not to compromise at all, and Crowley said Trump’s offer to give citizenship to a greater number of so-called Dreamers was a way of taking more “hostages.”
“I think the president continues to take additional hostages,” Crowley said. “Initially it was the roughly 800,000 Dreamers or DACA recipients, he has now expanded it to 1.8 million people who may be eligible for DACA, he’s also included—”
“Wait a minute,” Todd interjected. “Are you calling the fact that he increased the number of people he would make eligible for citizenship ‘more hostages’?”
“Oh, I think so,” Crowley answered.
“That is rough,” Todd said. Later in the show, the “Meet the Press Daily” host said Crowley’s position indicated that the debate was “getting nowhere.”
Crowley said Trump was only offering to protect a million illegal immigrants who were not under DACA in order to decrease immigration overall.
“[Trump] didn’t have to do this. He’s actually adding these folks to the equation, and all in the attempt to end certain aspects of…
