Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer once saw the path to protecting Dreamers as running straight through the Oval Office—a deal brokered one New Yorker to another. But after watching Trump blow up two DACA solutions that he initially seemed keen on before withering under the heat of his nativist besties, Schumer has concluded—perhaps late—that Trump is completely useless to the process. The Washington Post writes:
“Unless Donald Trump realizes that the kind of deal I offered is good for him, it’s better that he stays away,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview last week, sipping seltzer by a crackling fire in his Capitol office off the Senate floor. “If he disappears, we still, I think, have a very good chance to pass things, as long as he doesn’t mess it all up, which could very well happen.”
Schumer blames the impasse over immigration and the subsequent shutdown on Trump’s inability to strike a consistent position in private and public statements, fraying his trust in the president’s usefulness as a negotiating partner.
While it's true that Schumer eventually buckled on the Democrats' initial stand for Dreamers during the shutdown, there's also some truth to the fact Republicans are now on the hook for a solution given Mitch McConnell's agreement to take a vote on the issue. Sure, McConnell could renege, but regardless of what he did or didn't promise behind closed doors, in the minds of the public he's still the one holding the bag for whether a vote happens—he’s the Majority Leader.
Schumer’s gamble, at the moment, is that failure to secure protections for dreamers will fall on Republicans — and that Trump-state Democrats will be able to survive by tacking away from the more liberal wing of the party on immigration and other issues. [...]
Amid the recriminations, Schumer still says Democrats have come out stronger because of the government shutdown. He said they were able to elevate the issue of protecting DACA recipients and obtain a commitment from Republicans for Senate floor votes on the issue in February.
“We have heightened awareness of the Dreamers. It is much harder for Republicans to back off. Or just sweep it under the rug, which they have been doing for a year,” Schumer said.
It’s up to Democrats to build on that heightened public awareness and House Democrats’ efforts to highlight the plight of Dreamers at the State of the Union is a perfect opportunity to do that.