Nancy Pelosi responds to protesters who are angry that she negotiated with Republicans on immigration reform

WASHINGTON - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said some of the protesters who disrupted her town hall in San Francisco earlier this week helped plan it and suggested that their demands are not feasible in the current Congress.

On Monday, protesters went after Pelosi for working across the aisle with President Donald Trump to reach an understanding on the future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which benefits undocumented immigrant children born outside the US who are currently living in the country illegally.

"We need to have a conversation, but that was completely one-sided," Pelosi told reporters at the time. "They don't want any answers."

But in her weekly press conference on Wednesday, Pelosi said that despite the constant coordination between the various caucuses on Capitol Hill with immigration advocacy groups, the path forward will be with the bipartisan legislation called the DREAM Act.

"Some people are saying, "Well if you pass that, then what about other undocumenteds?' Well comprehensive immigration reform is our goal, we think this is a good first step and we do want to protect the families," she said.

Pelosi added that some of the protesters at her meeting were the same people who helped plan the event on her behalf.

"And one of the purposes of the meeting - in fact some of the people who were protesting had been part of the planning of the meeting for this meeting - was to say to dreamers, 'Sign up. You have until October fifth to sign up. Sign up even sooner than that,'" she said.

The longtime California Democrat also noted that the protesters were concerned about other types of undocumented immigrants, which would require much more sweeping legislation that the Republican leaders in Congress would be highly unlikely to support or even consider.

"There are some who showed up in San Francisco who said, 'All or none. We're not gonna do the dreamers unless we do comprehensive immigration reform,'" Pelosi said. "Well we don't have that opportunity now."