White House to press new immigration laws

Current Congress has little time left to deal with several other issues

WASHINGTON — The White House is racing to finish an immigration plan focused on enforcement that could be introduced before Democrats take control of the House. It would include funding for the U.S.Mexico border wall, restrictions on asylum and cuts to legal immigration, according to four people familiar with the plan.

But some in the White House are resisting the plan. They are urging President Donald Trump to agree to a more moderate proposal that would limit cuts to legal immigration and protect young immigrants who came to the United States as children.

“There is a schism within the White House over this issue,” said Jessica Vaughn, a former State Department foreign service officer and director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. “There are some folks who think it’s important to push those provisions now under the guise of merit-based immigration reform. And others who are opposed to that. They want the emphasis to be on enforcement.”

The proposal would in part enact into law the action that Trump took Thursday to confront the caravan of migrants moving toward the United States: He invoked national security powers used to implement last year’s “travel ban” to deny asylum to migrants who enter the country illegally.

The two plans are setting up a new battle in the Republican Party between immigration hard-liners, led by White House adviser Stephen Miller, who wants to rewrite the U.S. legal immigration system, and more centrist Republicans and business leaders who want to protect the young immigrants and provide more access to foreign workers.

Democrats won control of the House Tuesday. That means Trump will work with a divided Congress come January. It would be difficult to pass any plan, especially one focused on enforcement, during the lame duck session, during which Congress will be trying to avoid a government shutdown and working on other difficult measures such as a farm bill.

Congress will be in session for 12 workdays before its holiday break. A new Congress is sworn in in January. Before that time, it has to pass a spending bill before Dec. 7 or the government will have to shut down with no funding.

Earlier this year, Trump warned that a “good shutdown” may be necessary to force Democrats to agree to spend more than $20 billion on a border wall. But he appeared to back away from those threats this week after seeing the election results.

Trump said at a news conference Wednesday that he’s “not necessarily” committed to a shutdown and believes Democrats will be willing to work with him.