Immigration legislation

Trump to GOP lawmakers: ‘Stop wasting’ time on immigration legislation until after midterms

By LOUIS NELSON

Republican lawmakers should “stop wasting their time” trying to pass comprehensive immigration reform and wait until after the upcoming November midterm elections, President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Friday, suggesting that such legislation will be easier once the “red wave” of Republicans he has predicted is swept into office.

“Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November,” the president wrote online. “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 legislative suggestion comes as House GOP leaders have struggled in recent days to whip support for a pair of immigration bills, including one authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) that failed to pass on Thursday. The House is expected to vote on leadership-backed “compromise” immigration legislation next week, although its prospects for success are uncertain.

The president had previously cast doubt on the House’s immigration bills, suggesting that those efforts are pointless. “What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills when you need 9 votes by Democrats in the Senate, and the Dems are only looking to Obstruct (which they feel is good for them in the Mid-Terms),” Trump wrote on Thursday morning.

"Game over," Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) told CNN when asked if the president's Friday morning tweet marked the end of GOP efforts to pass immigration legislation in the House.

"It takes the wind out of the sails in what might have been a fairly productive weekend in terms of looking for a compromise. I don't know how it happens," he said. "If you look at how contentious this issue is, how much emotion there is, you know, without the president being out front, without the president having legislators' backs, there's no way they're going to take the risks that would be inherent in a major reform bill."

Sanford posited that Trump had moved to essentially kill House immigration reform efforts because "he's got, at times, a short attention span and quickly moves onto the next item." But he warned that waiting until after the midterms to move forward on immigration could be a dangerous gamble.

"I think it'd be a mistake to do that because you don't know what's going to happen in the election and the fact is you have a Republican, you know, White House, House and Senate," he said. "That coalition of stars may not be something that lasts forever. It may disappear in November. If so, it becomes that much more difficult to do that which he's talked about with regard to border security, a wall and more."

Sanford, a House Freedom Caucus member who has been openly critical of the president at times, lost a GOP primary earlier this month to a pro-Trump challenger. The president celebrated Sanford's loss on Twitter and said House members clapped and applauded him when he made a joke about Sanford during a meeting earlier this week.

Trump also renewed his complaint Friday morning that the GOP’s one-seat majority in the Senate is insufficient for his administration to pass major legislation through Congress, promising to pass “the finest, fairest and most comprehensive immigration bills” if voters elect more Republicans in November’s midterms.

“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!” the president wrote on Twitter.

“Elect more Republicans in November and we will pass the finest, fairest and most comprehensive Immigration Bills anywhere in the world,” he continued. “Right now we have the dumbest and the worst. Dems are doing nothing but Obstructing. Remember their motto, RESIST! Ours is PRODUCE!”