Washington – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat, said on Sunday he thought a new White House immigration plan was a good starting point, and criticized House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi for dismissing it as a way to “make America white again.”
“We don’t need that type of rhetoric on either side, from Nancy, (Republican House Speaker) Paul Ryan or anybody else,” said Manchin, a West Virginian and a leader of a bipartisan Senate group working on immigration. He spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
Senior White House officials outlined the immigration plan on Thursday that would offer a path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, a group known as the “Dreamers.”
The proposal also would curb some legal immigration programs and build a border wall with Mexico.
The White House described the “Dreamers” language as a major concession to Democrats, but the plan was quickly dismissed by leading Democrats as a non-starter.
Pelosi said it held Dreamers “hostage to a hateful anti-immigrant scheme” and accused the Trump administration of a campaign “to make America white again.”
In a separate interview Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press” program, Manchin said he thought the White House plan was “a good starting point.”
His comments highlighted the divisions among Democrats ahead of a Feb. 8 deadline for the U.S. Congress to pass another spending bill and try to reach an immigration agreement that would also protect “Dreamers” from deportation.
Manchin said the bipartisan group led by himself and moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins would meet on Monday evening to examine the White House proposal, adding he expected more details to emerge on Monday.
The group of over 20 senators from both parties, which has been dubbed the “Common Sense Coalition,” helped to end a three-day U.S. government shutdown last week.
“I think we can find a pathway forward (on immigration). I really do,” Manchin told NBC. Manchin announced earlier this week that he will run for re-election this year in a state where Trump trounced Hillary Clinton in 2016.
As reported by Vos Iz Neias