Trump pitches an incomplete immigration plan likely to fail

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump deployed all the trappings of a Rose Garden ceremony to pitch an incomplete and almost certainly doomed immigration plan Thursday, pushing forward even as his efforts to make progress on his other big 2020 campaign issue — trade — faced new obstacles.

A military string band played, and rows of chairs were arranged for White House staff and conservative senators.

“Today we are presenting a clear contrast with Democrats, who are proposing open borders, lower wages and frankly, lawless chaos,” said Trump, who began reading off a teleprompter but predictably veered off script at times during the 25-minute speech. “We are proposing an immigration plan that puts the jobs, wages and safety of American workers first.”

The plan focuses on border infrastructure — additional barriers, checkpoints and other enforcement tools. It also would shift the legal immigration system away from the preference for people who have family in the United States to one based on what the administration defines as “merit” — specific job skills, advanced degrees or the money to start a new company.

Trump has been unable to make a deal on immigration, his top campaign issue, despite sporadic overtures from Democratic lawmakers and, for his two first years, Republican control of Congress. His trade agenda ran into one of its biggest hurdles to date over the past week when negotiations on a pact with China devolved into a trade war that threatens to slow the roaring economy.

Despite those setbacks, Trump has been eager to use the stature of the Rose Garden to convince supporters that he is winning, and keeping his promises, even when those victory parties have been premature. At the beginning of his term, for example, Trump notably invited congressional leaders and a military band to celebrate the House’s vote to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, only to see the effort crumble weeks later in the Senate. In February, he dramatically signed an official emergency declaration in an attempt to bypass Congress to fund a wall along the southern border, but no new miles of border fencing have been completed.

Thursday’s event was intended to bolster Trump’s arguments that Congress’ attempts to work with him on immigration have been insincere at best and, at worst, aimed at resisting his efforts to fix a system that he has cast as a threat to national security and economic prosperity.

Democrats and some Republicans have said Trump is the stubborn one, refusing a compromise offer last year that would have allotted $25 billion for the wall because hard-line allies opposed the other part of the deal — a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers, people who came to the country illegally as children, as well as their extended families.

The president explicitly acknowledged Thursday that his latest plan lacked the Democratic support it would need to get through Congress and was in part a plug for his reelection in 2020.

“If for some reason, possibly political, we can’t get the Democrats to approve this meritbased, high-security plan, then we will get it approved immediately after the election, when we take back the House and keep the Senate, and of course, hold the presidency,” Trump said in closing his speech, opening his arms to a standing ovation.