Vice President Pence on Sunday invoked Martin Luther King Jr. in urging Congress to accept President Trump’s latest proposal to reopen the government, which includes funding for a wall along the southern border and protections for certain immigrants.
Pence asserted on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Trump’s pitch, made on Saturday, would end the shutdown while addressing both his priorities and Democratic priorities. He then noted the upcoming holiday in King’s honor.
{mosads}”But one of my favorite quotes from Dr. King was, ‘Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy,'” Pence said, quoting from the “I Have a Dream” speech. “You think of how he changed America. He inspired us to change through the legislative process to become a more perfect union.
“That’s exactly what President Trump is calling on the Congress to do,” the vice president continued. “Come to the table in a spirit of good faith. We’ll secure our border, we’ll reopen the government and we’ll move our nation forward as the president said yesterday to even a broader discussion about immigration reform in the months ahead.”
Trump on Saturday proposed a deal that would include more than $5 billion in funding for a wall along the southern border, a three-year extension of protections for “Dreamers” who benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and Temporary Protected Status holders, and funding for additional immigration judges and other border security measures.
Such a deal, if passed through Congress, would end the partial government shutdown, which has lasted 30 days and counting.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would bring Trump’s proposal up for a vote this week, with some Republicans quickly signaling their support.
Democratic leaders and some rank-and-file members promptly criticized the measure, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calling it a “non-starter.” Other Democrats expressed doubt that Trump can be trusted to keep his end of the deal, and suggested it’s unfair that the protections for immigrants would not be permanent.