Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King says efforts to reach a deal on legislation to grant legal status to those protected under DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, are off to a fast start.
“What I hope will happen is that the president will stay quiet and let us work through this in the Senate," King says. "I think we can come up with a strong, bipartisan bill.”
King told MSNBC he thinks a deal can be reached before the Feb. 8 target. There are roughly 700,000 immigrants who are in the country illegally after being brought here as children that are covered by the program.
President Obama established the program and President Trump ended it. Trump wants Congress to settle the issue.
King 2 “ There will be another continuing resolution on February eighth even if we get all of these things worked out because one of the parts of this deal is an overall budget deal and it will take the appropriations committee two or three weeks to do the paperwork.”