Shortly after speaking with President Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday there is still “no agreement” with Democrats on how to help thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
“There is no agreement. The president and [his] chief of staff called me from Air Force One today to discuss what was discussed, and it was a discussion, not an agreement or a negotiation,” Ryan told reporters at his weekly news conference.
“These were discussions, not negotiations. This isn’t an agreement,” he said.
{mosads}The Speaker’s remarks came after a confusing 18 hours in which the two top Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), emerged from a White House dinner with Trump and announced that they had reached an agreement in principle over how to handle 800,000 recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
That emerging agreement, the Democrats said, includes protecting the DACA recipients from deportation plus some border security measures that Republicans favor. The border wall that Trump campaigned on would not be part of this deal, both sides agreed.
“You need border security and enforcement as part of any agreement,” Ryan said. “I think that is something the Democrats are beginning to understand. I think that’s something they are beginning to agree with.”
Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus reminded Ryan on Thursday that he promised the group when he ran for Speaker in 2015 he would not bring any immigration bill to the floor that didn’t have the backing of the majority of his 240-member GOP conference.
Asked about that 2015 vow on Thursday, Ryan said he wouldn’t bring a solution to the floor that doesn’t have the president’s support.
“If we have the support of President Trump on the kinds of things I just said, getting security and enforcement along with the solution here, that will get a majority of our members because our members support President Trump.”