White House chief of staff John Kelly told reporters Tuesday it’s not likely that President Donald Trump will extend the March 5 deadline he gave Congress to act on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.
“I doubt very much” Trump will extend the deadline, Kelly told said on Capitol Hill after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Politico and The Washington Post reported.
“Mr. Obama established the program, and it was considered to be unconstitutional, not based on any law,” he told reporters, Politico wrote. “So the extension, I’m not so sure the President, this President, has the authority to extend it.”
Kelly added he would not recommend extending the deadline as it would give Congress more time, and Congress doesn’t work well without a deadline.
“What makes them act is pressure,” Kelly said of Congress, the Post wrote.
CNN reported Tuesday that Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, previously told lawmakers that the administration does not have the authority to extend the DACA program.
The chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, argued that there’s a “tiny silver lining” in Kelly’s comments in that it removes ambiguity and adds urgency to act.
“I think that puts the right kind of leverage — not that I agree with the White House strategies, typically — but that puts the right kind of leverage on the Senate,” Lujan Grisham,a New Mexico Democrat, told CNN.
Kelly and McConnell’s meeting covered a range of topics, including immigration and keeping the government open, a White House official said.