Trump still '100 percent' behind House immigration bill, homeland security chairman says

WASHINGTON – House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul insisted Sunday that President Donald Trump remains "100 percent" behind a compromise House immigration bill, despite Trump saying last week that Congress should give up its legislative efforts until after the election in November.

"I did talk to the White House (Saturday); they did say the president is still 100 percent behind us," Rep. McCaul, R-Texas, said on Fox News Sunday.

McCaul, along with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., pushes a bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for about 1.8 million young immigrants brought to the USA as children, provide about $23 billion for a border wall and place limits on legal immigration. The bill would allow children and their parents to remain together at detention centers if they're caught crossing the border illegally.

"I am the eternal optimist, and I do think there are 218 Republicans that agree (on the need to pass the bill)," McCaul said.

If it doesn't pass, the House will probably take up a narrow measure that would stop federal officials from separating children from their parents. A "zero tolerance" immigration policy announced by the Trump administration in early April led to the separation of babies, children and adolescents from their parents.

Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to stop further separations, but confusion remains about the fate of more than 2,000 children taken from their families. Federal officials announced a plan Saturday to reunite children with their parents in a mass detention center near Brownsville, Texas. It remained unclear how long it would take to bring them back together.

As of June 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was caring for 2,053 children separated from their adult family members, according to an agency fact sheet released Saturday. Customs and Border Protection reunited 522 children in its custody who were separated as part of the zero tolerance initiative, according to HHS.

"I think we, at a minimum, have to deal with the family separation," McCaul said. "I'm a father of five. I think this is inhumane. The pictures that we have seen, that's not the face of America that I think most people in this country want."

Trump first said he was strongly behind House efforts to pass a bill, then tweeted Friday that "Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November."

Thursday, House Republicans failed to pass a conservative immigration bill that would have funded his border wall, slashed legal immigration and provided temporary legal status to some undocumented immigrants.

Trump blamed Democrats for the immigration stalemate, though GOP leaders could not muster enough Republicans to pass a bill last week. "Democrats, fix the laws. Don't RESIST," he tweeted Sunday.

He tweeted later Sunday morning, "We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country."

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a moderate on immigration and a frequent critic of Trump, said Sunday that the president must stop bashing Democrats if he truly wants to pass legislation to fix the immigration system.

"When the president calls them clowns and losers, how does he expect the Democrats to sit down and work with Republicans on these issues," Flake said on ABC's "This Week." "Words matter. What the president says matters, and he ought to knock that off."

At a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, on Wednesday, Trump said, "Democrats put illegal immigrants before they put American citizens. What the hell is going on?"

Trump said Saturday in Nevada that he believes the immigration issue is a good one for Republicans in the congressional elections in November.

"I like the issue for election, too: Our issue is strong borders, no crime; their issue is open borders, let MS-13 (gang members) all over our country," Trump said.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he hopes the Senate can pass a bipartisan bill negotiated by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to stop families from being separated when they cross the border.

Noting the huge ideological differences between the conservative Texan and the liberal Californian, Corker said the fact that the two senators are working together "does bode for some hope in the United States Senate."

WSBTV