Legislative solution mired by tweets, ire of hard right

WASHINGTON — Republican apprehension over President Trump’s next tweet and fear of riling conservative voters are undermining GOP leaders’ electionyear struggle to shove an immigration bill through the House this week, leaving their prospects dubious.

Party leaders are trying to finally secure the votes they need for their wide-ranging bill with tweaks they hope will gain support from the GOP’s dueling conservative and moderate wings. But more important, wavering Republicans want Trump to provide political cover for immigration legislation that’s despised by hardright voters. His recent statements on their bill and history of abruptly flip-flopping on past health care and spending measures have not been reassuring.

Last Tuesday, he privately told House Republicans that he backed their legislation “1,000 percent” and would protect them during their campaigns, lawmakers

said. By Friday, he was tweeting that “Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration” and wait until after the November elections, when he said the GOP would approve tougher legislation because it will gain strength in Congress. That proposition is dicey at best.

“I think that the best way to pass legislation is to consistently support a position and help move it forward,” Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, a senior House Republican. Asked if Trump

was doing that, Walden pivoted toward a door and said, “I’ll leave it at that.”

Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News on Sunday that he talked to the White House over the weekend and “they say the president is still 100 percent behind us.”

The bill would make citizenship a possibility for “Dreamer” immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. when young. It would also finance Trump’s aspirational $25 billion wall with Mexico and curb government agencies from wrenching migrant children from detained parents.

The measure is the product of weeks of bargaining between party conservatives and moderates. Even so, the two GOP factions have been unable to resolve their final differences and vote-counters have yet to round up a majority. Republicans are getting no help from Democrats, who uniformly oppose the legislation.

The GOP divisions come at a bad time for the party: Elections are approaching and immigration has riveted public attention for months. Republicans who are battling to retain House control have hoped to focus this fall’s campaigns on the economy and tax cuts. Instead, in recent days the focus has shifted to the Trump administration’s wrenching of migrant children from their parents.

One of the major reasons for GOP defections on the bill is that conservatives say helping Dreamers stay in the U.S. is handing amnesty to lawbreakers.

“I’m a ‘no,’” said Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. He said he couldn’t defend helping the Dreamers “to people waiting in line the right way” to immigrate to the U.S.

GOP leaders said the House will vote on its compromise immigration bill despite Trump’s flashing red light on the subject. Some Republicans are eager for roll calls to show voters back home that they tried to address the issue.

“I think it’s important that the House be able to show we can take the action,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.