Trump suggests GOP is wasting time with immigration bill
President says a 'red wave' in November is needed to pass legislation over 'obstructing' Democrats; Doug McKelway reports from the 'White House.'
President Trump said Friday that a "red wave" is needed to pass an immigration bill in Congress, as he accused Democrats of “doing nothing but obstructing.”
“Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November,” Trump tweeted. “Dems are just playing games, have no intention of doing anything to solves this decades old problem. We can pass great legislation after the Red Wave!”
Trump's call comes after GOP leaders pulled a major immigration bill from consideration late Thursday, pushing a vote into next week.
HOUSE GOP ABRUPTLY SCRAPS PLANNED VOTE ON TROUBLED IMMIGRATION BILL, SAYING IT COULD PASS NEXT WEEK
Congressional Republicans had earlier failed to pass a more conservative bill. The more moderate, compromise measure was expected to have a requirement that employers use E-Verify to check the legal status of employees.
Leaders have sought to assuage both conservatives and moderates in their party, while also meeting the president’s four pillars: a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants brought to the country as children, border security including a wall, an end to so-called “chain migration” and an end to the diversity lottery visa.
A sticking point for conservatives is that while the compromise funds the wall, it also offers a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million young illegal immigrants. The conservative bill offers only the 700,000 recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program the ability to apply for indefinite renewals of non-immigrant status.
Democrats have rejected both bills.
"It is not a compromise," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters. "It may be a compromise with the devil, but it is not a compromise with the Democrats.”
Trump on Wednesday extended an invitation to Democrats to the White House to discuss immigration and said “it takes two to tango,” although he had scathing words for what he called the “extremist, open border” lawmakers.
“They don't care about the children...they don't care about the problems. They don't care about anything. All they do is say, 'Obstruct and let's see how we do’ because they have no policies that are any good,” he said ahead of a Cabinet meeting.
TRUMP SLAMS 'OPEN BORDER' DEMOCRATS, BLASTS MEXICO ON HEELS OF EXEC ORDER
On Thursday, he echoed that rhetoric, but without the invitation for Democrats to come to the table.
“Dems are doing nothing but Obstructing. Remember their motto, RESIST! Ours is PRODUCE!” he tweeted.
He renewed his criticism of the filibuster in the Senate, which requires 60 votes to break.
“Even if we get 100% Republican votes in the Senate, we need 10 Democrat votes to get a much needed Immigration Bill - & the Dems are Obstructionists who won’t give votes for political reasons & because they don’t care about Crime coming from Border! So we need to elect more R’s!”
Trump's tweets come after a fiery week in which rhetoric on both sides has escalated on the question of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which prosecutes all illegal border crossers. That in turn led to an increase in the number of children being separated from their parents.
Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ending the practice and allowing families to be detained together, but Democrats have since pushed for ending what they described as “indefinite detention” of families at the border.
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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