Issued on: January 9, 2018
President Donald J. Trump just concluded a successful bipartisan and bicameral meeting on immigration reform. During the closed-door portion of the meeting, they reached an agreement to negotiate legislation that accomplishes critically needed reforms in four high-priority areas: border security, chain migration, the visa lottery, and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-17/
Transcript below (video attached)
Question (3:15 pm ET): If I could follow up on the immigration meetings today, is the president concerned about the differences that democrats and republicans have when it comes to defining phrases like "border security?"
Press Secretary Sanders: They have a lot of things that they agree on and that's what we are going to focus on. Again, I am not going to negotiate with you guys. Look, I laid out what the principles and the priorities are and what all the individuals in the meeting today agreed to narrow the scope to and that's what we are going to continue to push for.
Question (3:15 pm ET): Thank you Sarah. First of all on border security, we are hearing a lot about immigration. How big of a role does drug trafficking play right now in, vis-a-vis the president and Congress
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: It certainly is a factor. it is a one of the reasons that the president is very committed to border security. He wants to stop the influx of drugs coming into this country.
Reporter: But surely, it's going to be more than just the wall because, drugs are easily flung over a wall, right?
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: Correct. Border security is more than just the wall.
Transcript below (video attached)
Question (3:11 pm ET): Thank you, Sarah. Going back to the wall: Last summer, the head of the Mexican Governor's Association said that when the president started talking about a price tag on building the wall, that meant he had given up on his idea of making Mexico pay for it. Now, in his remarks in Tennessee and in his recent speeches, the president has talked about the cost of the wall, and there has been no mention of his asked phrase, "and Mexico will pay for it." Has the president abandoned the idea of mexico paying for the wall?
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: No, he hasn't.
Transcript below (video attached)
Question (3:13 pm ET): Just to be clear, if the president wants a bill of love, why doesn't he drop the demand for the border wall and deal with DREAMERS alone?
Press Secretary Sanders: Because you have to have a full solution to this problem, you have to make sure that you're taking every step in border security, and you want to make sure that if you fix things on DACA you don't create and exacerbate the problem, and have to deal with it again in a year. The president wants to make sure have a clean solution to that front, and that's what we're going to do. The president wants to make sure we have a clean solution to that front and that's what we are going to do.
Reporter: So what does the president say to a young man like 24-year-old Jesus Contreas, he's from Houston, he's a paramedic, who has been working in this country to help make other lives better who are now waiting for congress to come up with something or they may get shipped to a country they've never known.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: He says exactly what he just did in that room. Let's work together, let's figure this out, I'm leading on this effort, I'm bringing all the members that need to be part of this conversation to the table, and he said that he was confident they would come together and get it done. And so that's what we are going to do.
Transcript below (video attached)
Question (3:06 pm ET) : Can I ask a question about phase two of the immigration issue as the president laid out today. So once you get past the DACA debate and some of these other issues, Senator Lindsey Graham seems to lay on table the idea of something that Senator Graham supports, which is a comprehensive plan that could include a path to citizenship for 11 or 12 million, or however many you count them, down them people who are illegal in this country, and the president seemed to respond, 'let's do it, let's go for it,' something along those lines. So are we to believe the president is committed to try to get to a path to citizenship for all 11 million illegal americans in the country, once phase two comes?
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: Right now our focus is on the things that were laid out. those where the negotiation is, faze one. that's our focus and our priority. we are certainly open to talking about a number of other issues when it comes to immigration. but right now this administration is focused on those four things and that negotiation and not a lot else at this front.
Transcript below (video attached)
Question (3:01 pm ET) : Thanks, Sarah, two quick questions if I may. The democrats said of a the meeting that they support border security measures and their understanding is that the president uses the "wall" and "border security," interchangeably. is that true?
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: We certainly believe that the wall is part of border security. that's one component of it. we firmly, again, believe that border security has to be part of this negotiation and part of this deal.
White House Press Briefing
Transcript below (video attached)
Question (2:58 pm ET): Can you help us clarify, when the Democrats came out, they applauded the president for organizing the meeting but said it was their understanding this would be a two phase process, DACA first, and then other elements that you outlined in your statement second, and that they perceived January 19th, not March 5th, as the deadline for action. Can you explain the president's interpretation of the meeting and that assessment of the Congressional Democrats?
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: Right. The president just concluded what we felt was a very successful and productive bipartisan and bicammeral meeting on immigration reform. During the closed door session the leadership agreed to negotiate and narrow the folk to us four issues: border security, chain migration, visa lottery, and DACA. They all agreed those four thing would be part of the negotiation and beyond that, then they could move into additional scope. But at this point, those are the four things on the table and the four things that we anticipate that they will be negotiating.
Reporter: Those four things are phase one from the president's perspective?
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: Correct.
Reporter: And are they tied to 19th or march 5th.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: They haven't outlined the date and I'm certainly not going to negotiate what that date looks like from the podium, that's something that we're going to work with Congress on, but those are the four areas that they all agreed at the conclude of meeting to narrow the scope and the focus to. John.
Question (3:00 pm ET): How confident are you that those four things will remain part of phase one of this process? Senator Feinstein posited the idea of doing a clean DACA bill custom which the president first seemed to embrace before
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: He embraced only if you look at what the president's definition of a clean DACA bill is. and within that bill, he thinks that you have to include not just fixing -- not just fixing DACA, but closing the loopholes and making sure we have a solution on that front so we don't create a problem and find ourselves right back where we started in one, two, three years later.
Reporter: - Which is clearly different bill, because she clearly stated she thinks they should do a clean daca bill, handle the DREAMERS and then handle border security as part of comprehensive immigration reform. Is the president setting him up here for a situation where the Democrats say no let's just do DACA, and he's on the other side.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: I think the president is setting himself up to achieve what everybody in that room agreed they wanted to see happen, and that is a deal on DACA, a deal or border security, talking about about chain migration, and visa lottery. That's where we are in this process, those are the four principles.