GOP tries to salvage immigration fix

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are considering separate legislation to address family separations at the U.S. southern border, the latest sign that a comprehensive, compromise immigration bill won’t pass anytime soon. The vote, which was initially slated for Thursday, is set to take place Tuesday evening.

House Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., on Monday told Fox News the House would likely reject the bill even as lawmakers continued negotiations over the phone. Disagreement remains over whether to allow the so-called “Dreamers,” who were brought to the United States illegally as children, to bring their parents to the United States. Meadows said the bill would likely fail, and he expected Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., to present a “follow-up piece of legislation within days.” He noted that Rodgers “has some real thoughtful insight in terms of how to keep those families together,” something “that a lot of us want to do.”

President Donald Trump also expressed his disapproval of the compromise bill and called the legal response dysfunctional. “People must simply be stopped at the Border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally,” Trump tweeted, adding, “If this is done, illegal immigration will be stopped in its tracks—and at very little, by comparison, cost.”