Trump steering clear of messy House fight
President Donald Trump has spent recent weeks publicly hammering Congress to crack down on “legal loopholes” he says allow criminals to enter the country illegally. But behind the scenes, Trump has shown little interest in jumping into an intensifying Capitol Hill debate over immigration legislation that is unlikely to ever reach his desk.
Trump is largely sitting out the biggest immigration showdown of his presidency to date as renegade House Republicans — from both the right and the center — drive an effort to force votes on immigration proposals. That includes legislation that would provide young “Dreamer” immigrants a path to legal status and beef up border security, but may fall short of funding Trump’s promised wall along the southern border.
The president isn’t calling House members into the Oval Office for private chats. He’s not dialing them up to gauge their votes or lobby. His Twitter feed — the clearest window into his personal priorities — is nearly mum on the subject.
The White House has signaled to congressional leaders through quieter channels — including a meeting at the White House last week — that the president sees little benefit in expending too much political capital before the midterm elections on building support for legislation that is thought to have little chance of becoming law, according to a senior GOP Hill aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to discuss private conversations.
While White House aides are working with GOP leaders on an alternative bill that might win over enough Republicans to pass, the president has held back, letting House leadership take the lead in developing a legislative strategy, according to White House and congressional aides.
“There are bills going through, I’m watching one or two of them. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told Fox News in an interview this week, underscoring his hands-off approach.
Such restraint may seem unexpected for a president who has made immigration his signature issue. But his reluctance to engage highlights the clear limits of the election-year gambit. Without Trump, the effort is more likely to sputter in Congress as factions collide. The arm’s-length approach may also reflect a concern — already being felt among some conservatives — that passing any legislation that extends protection to immigrants will anger Trump’s base as “amnesty” and could depress turnout in November, when Republicans need to counter a wave of Democratic enthusiasm.
This latest effort comes as congressional leaders had all but abandoned the immigration issue after failed Senate attempts to resolve the standoff earlier this year. But now a rebellious group of GOP moderates — led by those in Florida and California, states with large immigrant populations — is pushing it to the fore.
They’re collecting signatures to force a series of immigration votes in June, including on a bipartisan bill to address the “Dreamers” and the border wall. Trump is not likely to support that bill because it doesn’t fully fund the wall.
The moderate Republicans are employing an unusual procedural maneuver to essentially take over the chamber, with the help of Democrats, and force the vote. As lawmakers left town for the weeklong Memorial Day recess, they were just a couple of signatures shy of the 25 Republicans needed to push it forward.
One leader of the effort, Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., said he was convinced after talking with Trump during a recent visit to Key West that Trump “wants an immigration solution.”
Curbelo believes the White House “is as impatient with congressional inaction as we are” and he sees the administration’s hands-off approach as a tactic to force the issue forward.