The unity plea during his first State of the Union address will first be put to the test in his drive for a compromise on protecting 1.8 million “Dreamers” – people brought illegally to the country as children – who face a March 5 deadline on whether they can begin to be deported.
Trump said he was “extending an open hand” for an immigration deal and that he would provide Dreamers a pathway to citizenship over 10 to 12 years in exchange for funding for a border wall with Mexico and restrictions on legal immigration.
Trump called his plan a “down-the-middle compromise,” but some Democrats booed when he said he wanted to rein in “chain migration,” the ability of legal immigrants to bring a wide-ranging number of family members into the country.
During his speech, Trump honored the parents of two girls who were chased down and brutally murdered and whose deaths were among a string of 17 Long Island slayings that have been attributed to Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13.