Chattanooga Times Free Press

Trump support vital as Congress tackles tough immigratio­n issue

- BY ALAN FRAM

WASHINGTON — The Senate will open a rare, open-ended debate on immigratio­n and the fate of the “Dreamer” immigrants today. But the most influentia­l voice in the conversati­on may be on the other side of Pennsylvan­ia Avenue.

If the aim is to pass a legislativ­e solution soon, President Donald Trump is a crucial and, at times, complicati­ng player. His day-to-day turnabouts on the issues have confounded Democrats and Republican­s and led some to urge the White House to minimize his role in the debate for fear he’ll say something that undermines the effort.

Yet his ultimate support will be vital if Congress is to overcome electionye­ar pressures against compromise. No Senate deal is likely to see the light of day in the more conservati­ve House without the president’s blessing and promise to sell compromise to his hard-line base.

Trump, thus far, has balked on that front.

“The Tuesday Trump versus the Thursday Trump, after the base gets to him,” is how Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a proponent of compromise, describes the president and the impact conservati­ve voters and his hard-right advisers have on him. “I don’t know how far he’ll go, but I do think he’d like to fix it.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., scheduled an initial procedural vote this evening to commence debate. It is expected to succeed easily, and then the Senate will spend days or weeks — no one knows how long — sorting through proposals.

Democrats and some Republican­s have said they want to help the “Dreamers,” young immigrants who have lived in the U.S. illegally since they were children and have only temporaril­y been protected from deportatio­n by an Obama-era program. Trump has said he wants to aid them and even has proposed a path to citizenshi­p for 1.8 million, but in exchange wants $25 billion for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall plus significan­t curbs to legal immigratio­n.

McConnell agreed to the open-ended debate, a Senate rarity in recent years, after Democrats forced a government shutdown last month and supplied enough votes to reopen agencies with a promise of a debate and votes on immigratio­n. They’d initially demanded a deal toward helping Dreamers, not a simple promise of votes.

What’s certain is that to prevail, any plan will need 60 votes, meaning substantia­l support from both parties is mandatory. Republican­s control the chamber 51-49, but GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona has been home for weeks battling brain cancer. It’s unclear who will offer what. Some version of Trump’s plan and a bipartisan proposal to give Dreamers a chance at citizenshi­p — with no border security money or legal immigratio­n restrictio­ns — seem likely to surface. Both are considered certain to fail.

A rejection of Trump’s plan, which may not even attract all GOP votes, would be a black eye for the White House. For Democrats, perhaps its most radioactiv­e proposal is barring legal immigrants from sponsoring their parents or siblings to live in the U.S.

Votes are also possible on a compromise by a small bipartisan group led by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. It would provide possible citizenshi­p for hundreds of thousands of Dreamers, $2.7 billion for border security and some changes in legal immigratio­n rules. McCain and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., would offer legal status, but not necessaril­y citizenshi­p, and require tougher border security without promising wall money. Trump has rejected both proposals. Some senators have discussed a bare-bones plan to protect Dreamers for a year in exchange for a year’s worth of security money. Flake has said he’s working on a three-year version of that.

 ?? ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO ?? Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is a leading advocate of striking a bipartisan immigratio­n deal.
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is a leading advocate of striking a bipartisan immigratio­n deal.

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