US lawmakers broker DACA deal with Trump to protect illegal migrants

Top House and Senate Democrats have announced agreement with President Donald Trump to protect certain immigrants brought illegally to the US under the DACA programme, media reports said.

The agreement was announced in a joint statement from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

It was following a dinner the pair had with Trump on Wednesday at the White House, New York Post reported.

The statement said they and Trump have "agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that's acceptable to both sides", Fox News said.

The agreement would specifically not include Trump's long-sought border wall, the Fox report said.

It would enshrine protection for the nearly 800,000 immigrants who benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by former President Barack Obama that Trump has announced he would be ending.
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Donald Trump asks for $7.9 bn down payment for Harvey relief

President Donald Trump has sent lawmakers an initial request for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts.

The request, expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, would add $7.4 billion to rapidly dwindling Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid coffers and $450 million to finance disaster loans for small businesses.

Republican leaders are already making plans to use the aid package, certain to be overwhelmingly popular, to win speedy approval of a contentious increase in the federal borrowing limit.

A senior House Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were private, disclosed the approach. It ignores objections from House conservatives who are insisting that disaster money for Harvey should not be paired with the debt limit increase. Other senior GOP aides cautioned that no final decision had been made, and Democrats, whose votes would be needed in the Senate, have not signed off on the approach.
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