Wall, deportation plans face pushback
Washington — Donald Trump’s pledges to deport undocumented immigrants and build a U.S.-Mexico border wall helped fuel Republicans’ surprising election victories, but they now face growing challenges from fellow party members.
Three Republican senators are working with Democrats to shield about 750,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation if Trump cancels a 2012 order from President Barack Obama that let them stay in the United States.
Lawmakers want to “ensure that children who were brought here by their parents, through no fault of their own, are able to stay and finish their education and continue to contribute to society,” said Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona. Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are joining him on a measure drafted by the No. 2 Democratic leader, Dick Durbin of Illinois, that will be introduced after Congress convenes Tuesday.
Trump’s campaign was largely powered by his gettough stance on immigration. A Pew Research Center poll in August found that 79% of Trump voters want a border wall, compared with 38% of all registered voters.
But among lawmakers in Congress, the desire to build a wall along the entire 1,933-mile border with Mexico has evaporated. Republicans in both chambers instead support more fencing, border patrol agents, drones and other resources to curb illegal entry. House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said he’ll offer a bill with some of those steps in January.
“Starting next month, the people are going to get what they asked for,” the Texas Republican said Dec. 9 at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, contending that the “border security surge” plan is as good as a wall.
That may not be good enough for Trump, who pushed back after House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Dec. 4 on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that “conditions on the ground determine what you need” in different areas of the border.
“We’re going to work on the wall, Paul,” Trump told a cheering audience when the two appeared together Dec. 13 in Wisconsin on the president-elect’s thank-you tour. “We’re going to build the wall, OK? Believe me.”
In a Time magazine interview in early December, Trump didn’t back off a promise to cancel Obama’s executive orders on immigration. But he also said he’ll seek a solution on young undocumented immigrants — known as “Dreamers” after failed legislation to protect them — that will “make people happy and proud.”