Conservative House members say they got a promise from leadership to pursue a separate hardline Republican-only immigration bill in exchange for their votes to pass government funding Thursday night, a measure that several Republicans doubt could pass the House, let alone the Senate.
The bill is a proposal from key committee and subcommittee chairs Bob Goodlatte, Raul Labrador, Mike McCaul and Martha McSally that includes a large number of hardline immigration provisions that Democrats and some Republicans have said are nonstarters.
The immigration bill includes a number of controversial pieces, including mandatory worker verification, cracking down on sanctuary cities, changing asylum thresholds and cutting legal immigration to the U.S. by 25%. The bill offers Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients indefinitely renewable three-year work permits but no pathway to citizenship.
Republican Rep. David Valadao of California said Thursday the bill would not pass and would not get his vote as it is. And other Republicans have also said they have issues with the bill, especially outside the context of comprehensive immigration reform. “Not today, no,” he said. “There’s quite a bit there that needs a lot of work.”
Trump Furious with Kelly for Calling His Immigration Promises “Uninformed”
President Trump is reportedly “furious” with White House chief of staff John Kelly after Kelly told a group of Democratic lawmakers that some of Trump’s campaign promises on immigration were “uninformed.”
The president thought Kelly’s comments made him look like he was giving in to the demands of Democrats, The Washington Post reported Thursday. He also believed the comments made him appear as though he was a child, according to the Post.
On Thursday morning, Trump pushed back on Kelly’s comments, tweeting that his vision of a border wall with Mexico has “never changed or evolved.” “The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,” Trump wrote in an early-morning tweet.
Legal Haitian Immigrants Tripped Up by U.S. Immigration Services’ Delays
Thousands of Haitian immigrants living in the U.S. legally will face employment and travel hurdles because President Donald Trump’s administration delayed the process of re-registering those with temporary protected status, Haitian community leaders and immigrant activists say.
CBS News confirms that people from Haiti, along with Belize and Samoa, will now no longer be able to apply for H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant status according to new guidance from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. And according to the Department of Homeland Security Spokesperson Katie Waldman, “The decision to remove Haiti, Belize and Samoa from the H-2A & H-2B lists was made as a result of interagency coordination between DHS and the Department of State.”
But the new information comes thousands of Haitians who hold immigration documents that show their legal and work status expiring Monday, said immigrants and advocates, some of whom wondered if the bureaucratic slowdown was deliberate.
Florida Sheriff Departments Strike Deal with Federal Officials to Detain Illegal Immigrants
Seventeen Florida sheriffs’ departments struck an agreement with federal immigration officials on Wednesday aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration and enhancing public safety.
The plan, which received support from the National Sheriffs’ Association and the Major County Sheriffs of America, permits law enforcement to detain illegal immigrants held on criminal charges for up to 48 hours past their release date, allowing federal officials to claim the person, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The new deal will also circumvent current federal court rulings that allow local law enforcement to be sued if they detain people strictly on immigration violations because the inmate will be a federal detainee, similar to how local jails hold people for the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI or U.S. Marshals Service.
Sacramento Religious Groups to Provide Response in Immigration Raids
California’s resistance to President Donald Trump heated up Thursday as rapid response teams are now active and ready to help immigrants during Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
The resistance now includes religious organizations. Churches and temples are joining together through a group called Sacramento Area Congregations Together (ACT), and they are arming immigrants with yellow cards you can fold in your pocket that warn people what to do in the event of a raid.
That protection also comes in the form of a telephone hotline and yellow hats worn by members of a rapid response team that springs into action in the event of a roundup by ICE agents.
Sen. John Kennedy: “Trump Needs to Lay Out Exact Details On Immigration Reform Demands”
Sen. John N. Kennedy said Friday that President Trump needs to lay out exactly what he wants to see in an immigration bill after rejecting the bipartisan agreement reached last week. “The president changed his mind on immigration. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Mr. Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, said on CNN. “I respectfully ask him to please put on the table exactly what he would accept.”
Mr. Kennedy said he would like to see a bill go through regular order and allow both sides of the aisle to propose amendments, and put them up for a debate. He said he thinks Mr. Trump may be willing to extend the deadline on Dreamers if Congress requested more time to come to a comprehensive agreement, the current deadline being set for March 5.
The issue of Dreamers has left Congress on the verge of a shutdown Friday as Democrats fight to put language protecting the group in the funding bill. Some Republicans have pushed back on this idea, arguing it should be a separate issue, while other Republicans say they don’t want to pass a short-term spending bill again.
House Democrat Pelosi Hopeful Schumer Finds Trump-Backed Immigration Bill
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, said on Friday, during a news conference with Democratic leaders on opposition to government shutdown on Capitol Hill in Washington, that she hopes that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer will be able to determine what kind of immigration bill President Donald Trump will support.
“Hopefully Mr. Schumer will find out what the president will sign because I do believe … the votes are there, in the House, in the Senate,” Pelosi told reporters.
