Ivanka Trump praises father for ending policy
WASHINGTON — First daughter
Ivanka Trump reacted to her father’s executive order Wednesday with a tweet: “Thank you POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border,” she said, and she also called on Congress to
“find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values.”
As he signed the order Wednesday, Trump stressed that he had heard from his daughter, saying, “Ivanka feels very strongly” and “I think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it. We don’t like to see families separated.”
White House spokesman Raj Shah said Ivanka Trump had made calls to congressional leaders, advocating for a fix. She was at a meeting Wednesday between Trump and lawmakers at the White House. to use a rare procedure known as a discharge petition to demand a vote on bipartisan legislation that did not include the president’s full wall funding request.
Amodei was one of 23 Republicans who signed the discharge petition, which fell two votes short of the number needed to force a vote.
The bipartisan legislation also included measures to restore protections from deportation for undocumented immigrants under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that Trump ended in September. About 14,000 immigrants in Nevada were protected from deportation by DACA.
Ryan, in a news conference before the votes, said Democrats wanted “open borders.”
“We want to secure our borders,” Ryan said, to keep the flow of heroin, opioids and other narcotics out of the country.
Democrats said the Republican bills offered false choices that failed to adequately address DACA and reunification of children taken from parents and kept in cagelike detention facilities.
Trump backs bill initially
Trump endorsed the compromise bill during a closed-door rally with House Republicans on Tuesday at the Capitol.
With the bill facing possible defeat, Trump distanced himself from the expected failure Thursday and appeared to throw a wrench in House GOP leaders’ efforts to bridge their divisions in their caucus.
The president tweeted that any immigration bill passed by the House would die in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 51-49 majority and lack the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
Trump said Republican efforts were futile as long as Democrats could stop legislation from advancing in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the administration continued to scramble to modify its “zero tolerance” policy that was announced at the border in April and has led to the separation of more than 2,000 families.
After a week of aides saying only Congress, and not the president, had the authority to stop the separations, Trump came out Wednesday and signed an executive order to continue prosecutions but not separate children from their parents. Instead, families will be housed together.
While Trump continued to blame Democrats for the border policy, the administration actively sought to mitigate the fallout, sending first lady Melania Trump on an unannounced trip to the Texas border to observe a detention facility.
Even though Trump moved to reverse the action, lawmakers still are seeking a permanent legislative remedy.
Republican leaders spent Thursday evening trying to shore up votes for their compromise bill that Democrats are loathe to support.
The Senate is expected to move soon on narrow legislation dealing with just the separation of families at the border.
Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @ garymartindc on Twitter.