Despite Previous Comments From Trump, White House Now Says It Supports Bill To Shield Dreamers

Although President Donald Trump said Friday on Fox & Friends that he would not sign a “moderate” immigration proposal scheduled to be voted on next week, White House spokesman Raj Shah claims the president simply misunderstood the question, according to Politico.

Shah stated that Trump was criticizing a proposed legislation from GOP moderates and Democrats that would solidify the Obama-era Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program without significant immigration crackdown. Many reportedly believed, however, that Trump’s comments were referring to immigration legislation released Thursday that came from weeks of negotiations between conservative Republicans, centrists and GOP leaders.   

Trump would “sign either” the Godlatte bill, a conservative DACA plan expected to fail, or the House leadership bill, the aforementioned compromised plan released Thursday. The moderate bill, which proposes increasing security, curbing legal immigration and shielding Dreamers from deportation, mirrors the Trump administration’s own immigration ideas. However, even with the White House’s statement of presidential support, the bill is reportedly expected to fall short of achieving enough votes due to opposition from some centrists and immigration hardliners.

The president’s own statements to Fox & Friends makes Shah’s statement seem rather dubious. “I’m looking at both of them,” he said of the bills. “I certainly wouldn’t sign the more moderate one.”

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Politico reports that senior Republicans said Trump’s statement came from hearing negative conservative criticism of the proposal on TV. Along with this, Trump later tweeted demands for any immigration bill to fund his promised border wall, among other things.

The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda. Any Immigration Bill MUST HAVE full funding for the Wall, end Catch & Release, Visa Lottery and Chain, and go to Merit Based Immigration. Go for it! WIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2018

Trump’s rejection of the House leadership bill would have been another blow to moderate Republicans, who managed to force the issue of immigration to the forefront of legislative decisions, but failed to gain enough signatures to take over the floor and force a vote to protect Dreamers after banding together with Democrats.