NASHVILLE — President Donald Trump's proposal to potentially end the federal government shutdown is drawing criticism from Tennesseans who would be affected if the deal on immigration and border security is made.

After nearly a month of the shutdown, the president asked Democrats on Saturday to approve $5.7 billion for his proposed border wall in exchange for temporary protection for some immigrants.

"Unfortunately, today, the president only offered more of the same prolonged uncertainty and chaos," said Jazmin Ramirez, 24, of Madison. Ramirez is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which grants legal protections to the children of immigrants who entered the United States illegally.

"He could have ended this long ago by supporting permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship," Ramirez said. "Now, he wants to hold my life, my future, and my community hostage for a useless border wall. We are not a bargaining chip."

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Nashville resident Andres Martinez, director of policy and communications at the nonprofit Conexión Américas, said he welcomed the president's gesture but said a three-year extension of protection for DACA recipients and immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) falls short of what is needed.

"DACA and TPS recipients living in limbo deserve a lifetime of certainty, not just three years," Martinez said.

Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Policy Director Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus called the president's proposal "just another ransom note."

"All he’s proposing today is giving back temporary protections in exchange his wasteful and immoral wall," she said. "Taxpayers don’t want to see their taxes fund a monument to his anti-immigrant presidency. President Trump can end this shutdown and open the government. The majority of Americans want a pathway to citizenship for immigrant youth."

She said that's a solution that doesn’t require holding DACA and TPS program recipients, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers, "hostage."

The proposal

In addressing the nation, the president said his proposal would give "Dreamers" — people who were brought into the country illegally as children and now face deportation — work permits and protection from deportation, though he did not say anything about a path to citizenship.

In exchange for new Dreamer rules, Trump said he would receive wall funding, a proposal he appeared to scale back in size; Trump said his wall proposal now involves barriers only in "critical places" along the border, not a coast-to-coast structure.

Congressional Democrats, however, said the offer as reported would not lead to a deal that would end the shutdown, in part because it would allow Trump to pursue an expensive and ineffective wall.

"His proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement issued before Trump's speech.

Democrats said the proposal is also a non-starter because it does not provide a path to citizenship for qualified migrants.

A senior House Democratic aide said the proposal as it would not pass the House or Senate, in part because "it includes the same wasteful, ineffective $5.7 billion wall demand that shut down the government in the first place."

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David Jackson contributed to this report. Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.