PD Editorial: Breaking through the political barrier in Washington

It's time to deal.

President Donald Trump made an overdue concession in his weekend speech: There isn't going to be a 2,000-mile-long concrete wall spanning the border from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas.

Trump also put the Dreamers on the bargaining table as perhaps he finally recognized that he can't bluster his way out of the shutdown of federal agencies or strong-arm Democrats in the House of Representatives to put up money for a border wall that wasn't forthcoming when his fellow Republicans were in the majority.

The president's initial offer isn't enough to end the standoff on border security, but it's an opening offer, a starting point for negotiations. So far, both sides have done a lot more posturing than bargaining, despite the presence of a self-styled deal-maker in the White House.

But Trump needs to do one more thing: Release the hostages - the 800,000 federal employees who have been furloughed or forced to work without pay since Dec. 23.

Putting their families and finances - not to mention federal contractors and, ultimately, the U.S. economy - at risk hasn't produced a solution. In fact, Democrats have only hardened their opposition to Trump's demands.

Besides, if the president can, as he claims, declare an emergency and build the wall unilaterally, there is no justification for leaving these people in limbo.

Congress should pass the necessary appropriation bills to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year. If Trump is serious about a solution, he should sign them.

If an added incentive is needed, fund the Department of Homeland Security through March or April.

With the preliminaries out of the way, and the president's impertinent campaign promise abandoned, Democrats and Republicans can talk about the issues Trump identified in his Saturday speech: humanitarian assistance, drug-detection technology at ports of entry, additional border agents and immigration judges and, yes, barriers at those places along the border where they truly are needed for security.

Those discussions should be coupled with finding a resolution for the Dreamers, the approximately 1.8 million people brought into this country illegally as children by their parents.

Many of these people only know life as Americans, having been here for most of their lives. Some have served in our armed forces. They are students and workers and, in many instances, the siblings, spouses and even parents of U.S. citizens.

Democrats and many Republicans, including Trump, say they want to protect these young people from deportation. But Congress hasn't acted, and Trump moved to eliminate an Obama administration program that allowed Dreamers to stay so long as they work, study or serve in the military - and abide by the law.

Democrats want to allow them to stay here and offer them a path to citizenship. In his Saturday speech, Trump offered a three-year extension. There's a big gap between those positions, but it could be closed with some old-fashioned political horse-trading: more money for Trump's priorities in return for a better deal for the Dreamers.

Are there risks? Sure. Trump has to worry about backlash from anti-immigration zealots - including some in his own White House. Democrats know all about Trump's flip-flops on immigration. Letting this dispute linger is a bigger risk.

There have been enough speeches and tweets and votes with predetermined outcomes. It's time to negotiate in earnest. But let federal employees go back to work first.

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