Senate's working group outline of deal on borders and immigration

The final deal will codify the legal protections for so-called DREAMers that Trump rescinded when he ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that began under his predecessor. The deal also seeks to undo another Trump decision: the termination of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for certain groups of immigrants, including Salvadorans, 200,000 of whom could face an end to their legal status in 2019.

In an interview Thursday afternoon, Flake confirmed those details to The Daily Beast. He said the DACA fix agreed to as part of the deal includes a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers. Additionally, they will have to wait 12 years from the time they are awarded protected status before they can gain citizenship, according to a congressional source familiar with the negotiations, and they can earn up to two years of credit for any time spent as a DACA beneficiary. Groups of immigrants such as Salvadorans would be able to access the diversity visa lottery program if they have Temporary Protected Status, according to Flake.

In exchange for backpedaling two of his initiatives, Trump would score some real policy victories. The deal will revamp but not end the visa lottery program, numerous sources said. The formula for so-called chain migration—the policy whereby lawful permanent residents can sponsor immigrants to the U.S.—was re-drawn in a way that alters the ability of those DREAMers to sponsor their relatives for legal status.
Once again, the Democrats display zero desire or ability to negotiate. We should not WANT to codify DACA. You don't hand over concessions in order to reinstate the status quo.

It is easy to suspect that it is guaranteed that even if Democrats were to regain control of both chambers and the White House in a few years, they would not use the opportunity to repeal the recent tax bill, let alone substantially raise taxes matched to new spending. (Given the timing of the bill's passage, we will have entered a cyclical downturn by that point anyway.)

Forget about single payer healthcare with this bunch. They will shore up Obamacare with a public option and call it a victory, reproducing the 2009 baseline a decade late.

The final deal will also include money for some sort of physical structure along the southern border. Just what that structure will be called and what it will resemble is still unclear. Trump has demanded funding for a wall, though he has backed off of his insistence that it be a coast-to-coast concrete barrier funded by the Mexican government. Democrats, and some Republicans, are adamantly opposed to a wall being built.
Tell him: submit your plans for review according to whatever funds you can appropriate from Mexico. No crowdfunding.