Trump rebuffs deal on migrants
President reportedly insults some countries with profanity; senators aim to build consensus on plan
WASHINGTON » A bipartisan group of senators working to resolve the status of young undocumented immigrants, border security and restrictions on legal migration has offered an opening bid on an agreement and is seeking support from fellow senators and President Donald Trump. The president’s vulgar remark about some countries where immigrants come from made news in their own right Thursday.
Six senators working on immigration issues “have an agreement in principle. We’re shopping it to our colleagues,” Sen. Jeff Flake, RAriz., told reporters on Thursday afternoon.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., another member of the group, added that “we have answered the call” of Trump, who brought a cross-section of Democrats and Republicans together at the White House this week and called on them to reach a deal he can
sign.
In addition to Flake and Graham, the group included Sens. Richard Durbin, DIll., Michael Bennet, DColo., Robert Menendez, D-N. J., and Cory Gardner, R- Colo., all of whom have worked on immigration issues for several years and hail from states with large immigrant populations.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that there is no deal yet on immigration, “However, we still think we can get there.”
The fast-moving developments included a hastily arranged Oval Office meeting with Trump, where Graham and Durbin presented details of their plan. The surprise move angered senior Republican leaders and conservatives who are eager to fulfill Trump’s campaign pledges on immigration and control floor debate on the issue, but any attempt to pass immigration and border security legislation will require Democratic support in the closely divided Senate.
Trump raised eyebrows by questioning why the U. S. should permit more immigrants from “s--thole countries” after senators discussed revamping rules affecting entrants from Africa and Haiti, according to three people briefed on the conversation.
Trump made the remark in the Oval Office as two lawmakers described details to him of a bipartisan compromise among the six senators that would extend protections against depor- tation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants and strengthen border protections.
During their conversation, Durbin was explaining that as part of that deal, a lottery for visas that has benefited people from Africa and other nations would be ended, the sources said, though there could be some other way for them to apply. Durbin said people would be allowed to stay in the U.S. who fled here after disasters hit their homes in places including El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti.
Trump specifically questioned why the U. S. would want to admit more people from Haiti. He also mentioned Africa and asked why more people from “s--thole countries” should be allowed into the U.S., the sources said.
The president suggested that instead, the U. S. should allow more entrants from countries like Norway. Trump met this week with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
Asked about the remarks, White House spokesman Raj Shah did not deny them.
“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” he said.
Flake and Graham said they would not be publicly discussing details of their plan until they share it with colleagues. In a joint statement, the group said, “We are now working to build support for that deal in Congress.”
But Sen. Tom Cotton, RArk., an immigration hardliner and ally of Trump who attended the Oval Office meeting, said that the bipartisan plan “is unacceptable” because of how it deals with family-based migration policy, a practice that conservatives deride as “chain migration,” and on ending the diversity lottery program that grants visas to 55,000 people from countries with low immigration each year.
“It doesn’t end chain migration,” Cotton said of the bipartisan plan. “It merely delays it for an extremely small class of persons. On the diversity lottery, it simply takes all those visas and gives them away to other people for no rhyme or reason, it doesn’t just end the diversity lottery.”
Told of Cotton’s public criticisms, Graham snapped back: “Sen. Cotton can present his proposal. We presented ours. I’m not negotiating with Sen. Cotton and let me know when Sen. Cotton has a proposal that gets a Democrat. I’m dying to look at it.”
The breakthrough comes just days before a spending deadline that most Democrats are using as leverage for an immigration agreement.
Government funding expires Jan. 19, and Democrats say they will support legislation to keep the government operating only if the legislation includes plans to protect “dreamers.” But the talks have deadlocked for weeks amid Republican demands that any changes in the young immigrants’ legal status be coupled with changes in border security and some legal immigration programs.