Will the Trump administration’s lengthy wish list of restrictive immigration proposals sent to Congress earlier this month upset growing bipartisan momentum on Capitol Hill to provide protection to unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the United States as children? Or does it represent an early-round negotiating gambit?

The administration on October 8 named a new price for finding a legislative solution to grant legal status to qualified unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children, issuing a long list of demands, including building a border wall, blocking funding for “sanctuary” cities, and stripping protections from unaccompanied child migrants.

These proposals expose the huge divide between the nationalist, populist wing of the Republican Party that has been energized by the Trump election and the traditional pro-business wing. The populist faction believes not just in ending illegal immigration, but in curtailing all immigration.

Looking forward, it is likely that the issue of legislating protections for the DREAMer population will come to a head in the lead-up to the December 8 deadline to pass an appropriations bill to keep the government running. With 60 votes required in the Senate to pass a spending bill, Republicans will need the votes of at least eight Democrats to avoid a government shutdown—giving Democrats leverage to attach protections for DREAMers. In addition, if the other legislative reforms the President has been pushing for—tax reform now at the top of the list after the failure to repeal Obamacare and stalled momentum on infrastructure improvements—do not pass, he will face greater pressure to achieve a legislative victory, which would further strengthen Democrats’ negotiating hand.

Read the full article by Muzaffar Chishti, Jessica Bolter and Sara Pierce about the DREAM Act on Migration Policy Institute