Trump’s support for immigration bill may not be enough
More Republican approval may be needed in House
Washington — President Donald Trump is signaling support for a still-to-be-written compromise immigration bill, but it remains unclear whether the legislation — which would give young undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship — can garner enough Republican support to pass the House.
Hours after striking a deal to avoid a messy internal rebellion, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told Republican lawmakers Wednesday that Trump supports a move to consider a pair of competing bills next week. Later in the day, Trump’s top immigration adviser told a group of conservative lawmakers that the White House is supportive of the more moderate option, which GOP leaders estimate has the best chance to pass in the House.
“We’ve been working hand-in-glove with the administration on this,” Ryan said at a news conference.
The House is planning to consider a conservative bill that offers a limited path to permanent legal status for young undocumented immigrants, one that has little support from GOP moderates and is expected to fail. The other bill is being drafted to get both wings of the party on board, but there were still conservative doubts about the plan.
In one vivid illustration of the high stakes, former White House aide Stephen Bannon urged a group of two dozen hard-line conservatives gathered Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill to resist any plan offering “amnesty” for both policy and political reasons.
“If any bill passes the House with amnesty in it, it fractures the party and the base would be disgusted, and it could cost the party the majority in the fall,” said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who invited Bannon to address lawmakers and recounted his message in an inteRview. “The country knows what amnesty is.”
King said many of the lawmakers at the session were receptive to Bannon’s argument. Later, when White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller addressed members to offer support for the compromise plan during a Wednesday lunch, some lawmakers had pointed questions about why elements of the more conservative bill — including a provision requiring employers to screen their workers for legal status — weren’t added to the other bill.