GOP Leaders Bear-Hug The Trump Immigration Plan As Negotiations Sputter

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, pauses as he speaks to reporters outside his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, June 26, 2017. Senate Republicans unveil a revised health care bill in hopes of se... Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, pauses as he speaks to reporters outside his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, June 26, 2017. Senate Republicans unveil a revised health care bill in hopes of securing support from wavering GOP lawmakers, including one who calls the drive to whip his party's bill through the Senate this week "a little offensive." (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

As the deadline for a deal on immigration draws closer, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers with the unfortunate name “the Number Twos” has been meeting almost daily to negotiate a solution that would protect young immigrants known as Dreamers.

But their first meeting since President Trump unveiled his immigration proposal, which includes billions of dollars to build more walls on the U.S.-Mexico border and deep cuts to several forms of legal immigration, yielded no tangible progress. Though rank-and-file House Republicans and conservative groups have blasted the White House plan as “amnesty” and a violation of Trump’s campaign promises, the GOP leaders attending the meeting of the seconds-in-command from each party in each chamber (hence, the “Number Twos”) had nothing but praise for the proposal.

“I feel like the president has been extraordinarily generous, surprisingly so, in terms of the relief offered to the DACA recipients,” Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) told reporters, referring to the plan’s pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. “It just seems to me that it would be very disappointing to them, and to all of us, for them to fail to take advantage of this opportunity to provide permanent relief for them, while we do some other important things that need to be done, like secure the border, like plow more green cards back into the waiting list rather than just keep going on with collateral family-based immigration.”

Though a key provision in the deal cut in the Senate to end the government shutdown was a promise from GOP leaders to hold a vote on an immigration deal whether President Trump supports it or not, Republicans now say that they are “by definition”  working off the President’s framework.

“I know the Democrats would like to take the DACA piece and forget the rest, but we’re not going to do that,” Cornyn said. “The White House says there are four pillars, and I think we have to come up with a solution that addresses all four.”

Cornyn’s counterpart in the House, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), was more tight-lipped exiting the meeting, only telling reporters: “The president laid out a very good start.”

The Democratic leaders maintain that the White House plan is “a nonstarter,” particularly its provisions banning all family-based immigration other than spouses and minor children and eliminating the diversity visa lottery—changes that would slash legal immigration by at least 44 percent, according to the Cato Institute.

Asked what he thinks of the White House framework, Steny Hoyer (D-MD) quipped to reporters: “Not much.”

Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) called the cuts to family-based immigration “one of the most serious problems in the Republican proposal.”

“The strength of American families has been a pillar of our country for as long as I can remember,” he said. “To limit family unification and to literally divide families from their children is inconsistent with the values I thought both parties embraced.”

Trump’s plan would result in 22 million fewer people immigrating legally to the U.S. over the next 50 years, with both citizens and permanent residents no longer able to sponsor their parents, adult children, or siblings. But Cornyn insisted Monday that the plan, by reallocating visas to address the current processing waitlist, is actually pro-family.

“One way I look at it is that we could use those green cards to move families into the country faster rather than keep them in this decade, sometimes two-decade-long backlog,” he said. “We could actually unify families. To me that sounds like a pretty good idea.”

All of the meeting’s participants told reporters that no progress was made on even the outlines of the deal, but that the group will continue to meet this week.

“So far, nothing has come from these meetings other than another meeting,” grumbled Durbin. “What ‘does border security’ mean? Did we agree on a definition of the wall? No. An amount for border security? No. We’re still at the earliest stages.”

Latest DC

Notable Replies

  1. Though a key provision in the deal cut in the Senate to end the government shutdown was a promise from GOP leaders to hold a vote on an immigration deal whether President Trump supports it or not, Republicans now say that they are “by definition” working off the President’s framework.

    “By definition”?

    Well, what do you know; they’re right!

  2. These Republicans are so spineless and more importantly, deceitful to their own constituents on such a regular basis. It can’t be repeated enough unfortunately. They stand for nothing but policies based on ridiculous falsehoods and bigotry. Their greatest fear seems to be disagreeing with a failed real estate ‘mogul’ who regularly bankrupted his own businesses and wormed his way into the Oval Office because their own fear is they’ll get labeled with some childish moniker like Crazy Cornyn or McKnownothing McCarthy by that Moron-in-Chief.

    The public already sees through their pliant suckitude. Ironically, they have to fight against the insane propaganda machine they themselves helped to create over the years like Faux News and Brietbart if they fail to tow the party line. There are no profiles in courage out of the entire bunch of GOPers these days…not even the ones facing retirement. History will not speak well of any of these people.

  3. OT…but I looked up Jill McCabe in lieu of trump’s rude remark to Andrew McCabe regarding her run for VA state house in 2015:

    1. The incumbent she ran against is named Dick Black.
    2. Dick Black’s office is in the Pocahontas building in Richmond, VA.
      Doesn’t get weirder than that!

    Also too: A twitter post from her campaign has a photo of her finding a lost dog while canvassing so she stopped to call the owners and returned the pup. I’d vote for her for that alone.

    1. I’m going to look for Andrew to be someone trump wished he didn’t fuck with .
  4. I think he has picked the wrong agency to fuck with.
    They have the goods on Trump and his Collection of grifting douchebags
    If he fires Rothenstein and then Mueller there will be a Tsunami of incriminating documents “Leaked”
    I know Comey is sitting in the wings just waiting soon to be joined by McCabe
    The FBI has always put country above all else and they will not let this stand

  5. I wonder if Rosenstein has already signed off on any impeachment/indictment paperwork that Mueller needs. Can he do that? I don’t know. But I would think that if they haven’t yet, they’re doing it quietly now. But actually, I think it’s already done. At least I hope so.

    late: ummmmmm…not so sure Hoover was a country first kind of guy but I get your point and think that the FBI is on the side of the nation at large (except maybe Guilliani’s NY office - and even them now) at this time in history simply because they don’t want to end up becoming the PBI…Putin’s Bureau of Investigation.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

25 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for valgalky23 Avatar for fgs Avatar for gulliver Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for sysprog Avatar for jloomis3 Avatar for cervantes Avatar for dizcuzted Avatar for bluinmaine Avatar for sickneffintired Avatar for tecmage Avatar for ronbyers Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for jtx Avatar for khyber900 Avatar for brian512 Avatar for clare Avatar for carolson

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: