Senator: Dems can be ‘flexible’ on Trump’s wall

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) says in a new interview that Democrats could be open to a compromise on President Trump’s plan for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Blumenthal told host John Catsimatidis on New York’s AM 970 that Democrats can be “flexible” on border security, but warned that a wall will not be built from “sea to shining sea.”

“On the wall, we would be willing to be flexible on border security,” he said.

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“There are ways, again, to be bipartisan … in devising solutions to make our borders more secure using surveillance and sensors, better training for agents,” Blumenthal said, adding that “strengthening some of the physical structures and fences” could also be part of a deal.

“If the president wants to call it a wall, so be it. Investment in border security is certainly important, and, particularly, if we do establish on DACA a path to citizenship,” he said about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Democrats are pushing congressional Republicans to provide protections for those affected by Trump’s decision to end DACA, which shields from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Trump gave Congress a March 5 deadline to pass a legislative fix for those affected by his decision to end the Obama-era program, but Congress has yet to agree on a deal that would include protections for those immigrants.

“I’m hoping we can find a bipartisan way forward on both DACA and the wall that the president has insisted on building,” Blumenthal said. “But everyone agrees there isn’t going to be a wall from sea to shining sea.”