TRUMP TO GOP: FIX SYSTEM
President reviews pair of House bills but offers little in way of guidance
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump implored anxious House Republicans to fix the nation’s broken immigration system but did not offer a clear path forward amid the growing uproar over his administration’s decision to separate migrant families at the border.
Huddling with the GOP at the Capitol on Tuesday evening, Trump stopped short of giving a full-throated endorsement to legislation meant to unite the moderate and conservative wings of the House Republican caucus.
Instead, Trump told Republicans in the closed-door strategy session that he would support either of the bills slated for votes later this week.
“He didn’t really tell us what bill to vote for,” said Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., saying Trump laid out his main principles on immigration and told Republicans he “wanted to take care of the kids” — a reference to the unfolding family separation crisis.
The impetuous president also often veered off into other unrelated
matters during the meeting with House Republicans, as he mused on trade and North Korea policy, people inside the room said. He also mocked Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., whose primary loss last week was blamed mainly on his criticisms of the president.
“I want to congratulate Mark on a great race!” Trump said mockingly, according to two people in the room. The meeting went silent as Trump called Sanford “nasty,” which prompted some boos, the people said.
Earlier Tuesday, a defiant Trump had defended the administration policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border and demanded Congress produce comprehensive immigration legislation
to address what he called a “massive crisis.”
Trump said he plans to make changes to whatever immigration measure emerges from the House, although his aides have said he would sign both bills under consideration or, perhaps, a narrower fix that immediately addresses the family separations.
Trump called on Congress to authorize the government “to detain and promptly remove families together as a unit,” which he said was “the only solution to the border crisis.” And he went on to mock current security measures at the borders as insufficient and castigated the immigration court system as corrupt, appearing to reject a proposal by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would keep migrant families intact in part by increasing the number of immigration court personnel.
“We have to have a real border, not judges,” Trump
said during a midday speech to the National Federation of Independent Business. “Thousands and thousands of judges they want to hire. Who are these people? ... Seriously, what country does it? They said, ‘Sir, we’d like to hire about 5,000 or 6,000 more judges.’ Five thousand or 6,000. Now, can you imagine the graft that must take place?”
In remarks before a gathering of business owners in Washington, Trump argued that undocumented immigrants could “game the system” by taking counsel from immigration lawyers and reading statements prepared for them. And on Twitter, Trump continued to repeat his false claim Tuesday that Democrats were responsible for the separation of parents from children consistent with the “zero tolerance” policy that Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced with fanfare this year.
Trump’s visit with House Republicans was ostensibly to lobby them on broad immigration legislation aimed at ending the separations while also providing billions of dollars for his longsought border wall and other security priorities. But Trump earlier also indicated that he would want to make changes to the bill — which White House officials had previously said he supports and would sign.
The latest in confusing remarks from Trump concerned Republican lawmakers, who want clarity and political cover from the president as they confront an issue that has long stymied the party.
“I’m hoping it was just an off-the-cuff comment,” Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, an large bloc of conservative lawmakers, said of Trump’s remarks that he was considering revising the carefully
negotiated bill.
In the Senate, Republicans are drafting narrow legislation to address the issue of family separations. GOP senators are coalescing around a framework that would allow families to be detained together and rework the docket of immigration cases so those families are sent to the front of the line of migrants waiting for a court hearing.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he hoped the Senate could pass such a bill by the end of the week, although that timeline appeared optimistic.
Trump and top administration officials are unwilling — at the moment, at least — to unilaterally reverse its separation policy. The president seemed especially animated in his speech before business owners and agitated about the way his administration’s family separation policy is being portrayed in the media.
Republicans are eager to find a legislative end to the turmoil sparked by the new “zero tolerance” policy at the border — although Trump in recent days has hinted that only a broader bill that included the border wall and other enforcement measures would pass muster.
The Department of Homeland Security has said 2,342 children have been separated from their parents since last month.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has presented her own plan that would halt family separations. All 49 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus support it. No Republicans have signed on.