Schumer hints Dreamer amnesty will be part of year-end spending bill

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer predicted Tuesday that Dreamers will get permanent legal status in the end-of-year spending deal Congress is working on, and said President Trump will have to sign it.

“We feel very strongly that DACA must pass and must pass by Dec. 31,” Mr. Schumer told reporters at the Capitol. “We think we’re going to have a good number of our Republican colleagues join us.”

Mr. Trump’s decision in September to impose a six-month phaseout on the legally suspect Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty has dropped the difficult issue in the lap of Congress.

The president said Capitol Hill must figure out a permanent solution for the nearly 700,000 young adults protected by the DACA program, but has also said it must be coupled with stiff security provisions.

Democrats have balked at those security ideas, saying the illegal immigrant Dreamers have earned a right to citizenship. They’ve created a self-imposed end-of-year deadline for getting that done.

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