With multiple immigration bills floating in Congress, Pres. Donald J. Trump has taken a firm stand about which legislation he will sign and which he would veto — only to signal willingness to compromise hours after the fact.
To date, the Republican-led House and Senate have worked closely with the White House to pass only legislation he would sign into law. The massive omnibus package nearly received Pres. Trump’s first veto after it failed to include a substantial down payment on his border wall campaign promise.
But a veritable shell games has some news outlets uncertain about where the president stands with all of the immigration proposals. In what some are considering another instance of “fake news,” it has been widely reported that Pres. Trump would sign a “moderate” or “middle ground” package on immigration reform.
“I’m looking at both of them,” Trump reportedly said. “I certainly wouldn’t sign the more moderate one.”
The left-leaning media and Pres. Trump may not see eye-to-eye on what a moderate package entails — but the president is clearly coming to grips with the fact that he may need to work with moderates to get things done.
Family Separation at Border a Driving Issue
Recent coverage of illegal immigrant parents and children being separated at the border has been something of a lightning rod. The Obama- and Bush-era policy mandates that children be placed in protective care due to human trafficking dangers.
But the separations have become a humanitarian issue. The president has pressed Congress to change the law as part of overall immigration reform. The weight of the long-standing policy, coupled with a nixed DACA program working its way through the judicial system, has congressional leaders scurrying to push through a fix on both issues.
With contentious mid-terms looming, candidates facing re-election do not want to be on the wrong side of immigration reform. But at the end of the tunnel, Pres. Trump has made it abundantly clear that only legislation that meets his “four pillars” will be signed into law.
Trump’s Four Pillars of Immigration Reform
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are well versed in the president’s immigration reform requirements. The president has already embedded compromise that should have attracted enough Democrats to pass a bill. The four pillars are:
1: Secure the southern U.S. border with enough funding to hire and maintain a fully functioning Border Patrol. Build a $25 billion wall in areas where practical, and deploy drones and other tactical monitoring elements.
2: End the Diversity Lottery Program that offers admissions for a random 55,000 people annually. Replace this process with a merit-based system.
3: End chain migration beyond the immediate family members of a green card holder.
4: Provide a pathway to citizenship for approximately 1.8 million “dreamers” who were brought to the United States as children and have contributed to the country without committing a crime.
In recent weeks, Pres. Trump also called upon Congress to change a law requiring illegal immigrant parents and children taken into custody at the border be to be separated.
“Real” Immigration Reform Coming to a Vote
In recent weeks, a group of rogue Republicans and Democrats attempted to push through a bill that did not adhere to the strict principals outlined by the Trump Administration. This so-called compromise fell short of coming to a vote after Speaker Paul Ryan assured GOP members that the president would not sign the legislation. That paved the way for a vote in mid-June on a pair of bills the president has been tracking.
“Unless it includes a wall, and I mean a wall, a real wall, and unless it includes very strong border security, there’ll be no approvals from me. Because I have to either approve it or not,” the president reportedly said. “There are bills going through. I’m watching one or two of them. We’ll see what happens. But I can tell you there is a mood right now for border security.”
It’s no secret that Pres. Trump favors the legislation crafted by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte. Although Democrats are calling this a “hardline” measure, it has been tweaked to include compromise and end the separation of parents and children at the border. The Goodlatte bill meets the president’s four pillars standard. This is not the measure the biased media called “moderate.”
Speaker Ryan is currently maneuvering to bring the bill to a vote. Democrats are decrying the measure and planning a filibuster in the Senate, despite the fact it would secure a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers.
“The President fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill,” White House spokesman Raj Shah reportedly said. “Either the Goodlatte or the leadership bills.”
While some compromise and an effort to end family separation are included in the immigration bills, Pres. Trump remains committed to complete reform of a broken process or nothing at all.
~ Liberty Planet
