Trump pushes Congress on new immigration bill
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pushed a 500-page immigration bill as the only option in Congress to help “Dreamers,” all but issuing a veto threat on alternatives just as a bipartisan coalition of senators appeared close Wednesday to agreeing on a proposal that may draw broader support.
Top Republicans back the administration approach from Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. That measure protects 1.8 million Dreamers from deportation in exchange for massive long-term cuts in legal immigration of family members of immigrants. It includes $25 billion for Trump’s border wall and a ramp-up of enforcement that would increase the pace of deportations.
But even as White House aides framed any alternatives as unworkable bills that Trump would not sign into law, a group of senators, the Common Sense Coalition, led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, appeared on the verge of a breakthrough on a rival strategy.
Their proposal would take a more narrow approach favored by Democrats, linking Dreamer protections and the $25 billion in border security. It would steer clear of the more complicated issues of family visas or legal migration limits that have drawn sharp opposition to the White House approach. But the bipartisan plan would prevent the parents of Dreamers from earning legal status — a GOP priority.
However, the swift rejection by Trump — who once assured senators he would sign whatever immigration measure they sent him — threatened to squash the bipartisan effort.
“I am asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfill these four pillars,” Trump said, referring to his mulit-pronged approach, in statement ahead of the bipartisan group’s morning meeting. “That includes opposing any shortterm ‘Band-Aid’ approach.” The pillars include Dreamers, border security, family visas and the diversity lottery.
Senators resisted Trump’s move to scare them off a bipartisan plan as they tried to amass the 60 votes needed from the narrowly-divided Senate ahead of voting expected today.