Trump said to join immigration talks

GOP moderate: Petition drive to force issue to House floor on hold for now

WASHINGTON -- A leader of moderate House Republicans' bid to force votes on immigration bills said President Donald Trump has joined talks seeking a compromise and that the lawmakers' petition drive is on hold for now.

Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., told reporters Thursday that the discussions are nearing an agreement that would provide permanent legal status for illegal aliens who were brought to the U.S. as children, known as Dreamers.

Denham said "an agreement in principle" on immigration was reached between the Republican factions before the House left Thursday for its weeklong Memorial Day break. The goal is to produce a compromise bill by a June 7 meeting of House Republicans, he said.

"We are prepared to deliver the rest of the votes if the discussion breaks down," Denham said, referring to the lawmakers' petition. Group members Tom Reed of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania signed the petition Thursday.

Moderate Republicans and Democrats are close to 218 signatures -- a majority of the House -- required to advance immigration bills that GOP leaders don't want to take to the floor. As of 11 a.m. Thursday, the petition had 212 signatures.

Success on the petition would deal a blow to lame-duck House Speaker Paul Ryan, who opposed the effort. Yet the moderate Republicans, many of whom are facing tough re-election campaigns, said they were tired of waiting on leaders' immigration promises and worry that the issue could cost them their congressional seats.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus has stridently opposed the moderate effort. Last week the Freedom Caucus voted down the House Republican farm bill in order to gain leverage in the ongoing immigration talks.

The group wants the House to pass some version of the Securing America's Future Act, H.R. 4760, a conservative bill written by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. That bill would provide temporary protection for Dreamers while constricting legal immigration by limiting immigrants' ability to sponsor family members to come to the U.S. and by eliminating the diversity visa lottery.

[U.S. immigration: Data visualization of selected immigration statistics, U.S. border map]

Democrats say the House would have the votes to pass the Dream Act, H.R. 3440 -- which would grant legal permanent resident status to the Dreamers -- if the bill were taken to the floor. Conservatives say passage of that bill, or a related measure that would add border security spending, would anger the Republican voter base.

Trump, speaking Thursday on the Fox & Friends television show, reiterated his stance that he won't sign an immigration bill unless it funds a wall on the southern border.

"Unless it improves a wall, and I mean a wall, a real wall, and unless it improves very strong border security, there'll be no approvals from me, because I have to either approve it or not," Trump said.

Trump also said he is not inclined to support legislation that addresses the Dreamers and a border wall but does not make other changes he is seeking in what he called the "worst immigration laws in the entire world."

"I think it's time to get the whole package," Trump said.

Trump is also seeking to limit family immigration, which he refers to as "chain migration," as well as a diversity visa lottery that has awarded about 50,000 green cards annually to people from countries with low immigration rates to the United States.

"Chain migration is a disaster, and you look at what's going on where somebody comes in who's bad and yet they'll have 23 members of a family, not one of them do you want in this country," Trump said on Fox & Friends. "So chain migration is terrible, the lottery is terrible, we certainly would like to have it end."

Last month, Trump threatened to shut down the federal government in September if Congress did not provide more funding to build a border wall.

Information for this article was contributed by Erik Wasson of Bloomberg News; by Sarah D. Wire of the Los Angeles Times; and by John Wagner and Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post.

A Section on 05/25/2018

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