we re in a countdown toward deportation for 780,000 protected by daca today. my challenge to the president is you ve talked very glowingly about these kids. help us. help us in the house, help us in the senate. reporter: others are skeptical about congress s ability to pass comprehensive immigration legislation. senator john cornyn telling cnn a large-scale immigration bill would pretty much guarantee failure. in his harshest criticism yet, president obama slamming the decision to rescind his 2012 executive action in a lengthy letter as wrong, self-defeating and cruel saying in part, let s be clear, the action taken today isn t required legally. it s a political decision and a moral question. across the country nationwide protests were on display as president trump seemed to reverse his own promises to protect young immigrants from
in the houses that we shouldn t do anything but leegz these individuals. what really complicated thing today was sarah huckleby sanders saying they wouldn t necessarily accept a targeted bill on daca but a big reform bill on immigration. this is something that most republicans reject. they don t want to do a comprehensive immigration bill, they want to do it piece by piece. they rejected the last time they tried to do this in 2013. john kor nan of texas did tell me earlier today that going this route, a big immigration bill will quote, pretty much guarantee failure. the department is divided here if the president didn t come out what he wants to do. it s unclear what congress can do. this is from the former president barack obama.
pass a new dream act by the end of september. the clock is ticking. we re now in a countdown toward deportation for 780,000 protected by daca today. my challenge for the president is that you talk very glowingly about these kids. help us in the house, help us in the senate. reporter: others are sceptical about congress s ability to pass come hen situation immigration legislation. senator john cornyn telling cnn a large scale immigration bill would pretty much guarantee failure. the move to end daca fell well beyond the halls of congress. president obama slamming the decision to rescind his 2012 executive action in a lengthy letter as wrong, self-defeating and cruel, saying in part, let s be clear, the action taken today isn t required legally. it s a political decision and a moral question.
would also build a wall along the southern border. then you have some immigration hard liners like steve king in iowa in the house who said we shouldn t do anything at all in terms of legalizing these individuals. on top of that, don, what really complicated things today was sarah huckabee sanders saying that they wouldn t necessarily accept a targeted bill on daca but a big reform bill on immigration. this is something that most republicans outworldly reject. they don t want to do a comprehensive immigration bill. they want to do it piece by piece. they overwhelmingly rejected it the last time they tried to do this in 2013. the number two senate republican, don, john cornyn of texas, did tell me earlier today that going this route, a big immigration bill, would, quote, pretty much guarantee failure. so the party is divided on the strategy here, and if the president does not come out very clearly on what he wants to do, it s unclear what congress can do. i want to read this.
pressure potentially. he could have said that more strongly today and we ve not yet seen him play a leadership role in any piece of legislation. this could certainly be one of them. that would be the different dynamic. you re right, rebecca, some of the conservative house members may go along. he has sway with them. this is what the potential leadership is about here. but this is more of a challenge than people think. anything with immigration related to it never seems to get far. senator john cornyn of texas just told our manu raju up on capitol hill that any project for large-scale, comprehensive immigration reform would pretty much guarantee failure. he said, we ve tried comprehensive for as long as i ve been here. we ve never succeeded because people have asked for a pathway to citizenship, for example, and we ve just never been able to do that. that would be a mistake.