Trump, GOP leaders seek solution for migrant kids
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump searched anxiously Tuesday evening for a way to end the administration’s policy of separating families after illegal border crossings, with their focus shifting to a new plan to keep children in detention longer than now permitted — but with their parents.
GOP House leaders, increasingly fearful of voter reaction in November, met with Trump for about an hour at the Capitol to try to work out some resolution.
“We had a great meeting,” he called out as he left, but he gave no other information on possible progress.
Leaders in both the House and Senate are struggling to shield the party’s lawmakers from the public outcry over images of children taken from migrant parents and held in cages at the border. But they are running up against Trump’s shifting views on specifics and his determination, according to advisers, not to look soft on immigration or his signature border wall.
Many lawmakers say he could simply reverse the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy and keep families together. But some worry he could also inject a new dynamic, rejecting emerging GOP proposals and potentially exacerbating an already tough situation as his party heads toward difficult midterm elections.
As Trump entered the Capitol basement for the closed-door session, he told reporters, “The system has been broken for many years, the immigration system. ... We’re going to try and see if we can fix it.”
At an earlier event Tuesday, Trump said he was asking Congress for “the legal authority to detain and promptly remove families together as a unit.” He said it was “the only solution to the border crisis.”
House GOP leaders are scrambling to revise their broader current immigration bill to include a provision to resolve the situation.
The major change being unveiled Tuesday would loosen rules that now limit the amount of time minors can be held to 20 days, according to a GOP source familiar with the measure. Instead, the children could be detained with their parents for extended periods.
The revised provision would also give Department of Homeland Security the authority to use $7 billion in border technology funding to pay for family detention centers, said the person, who was not authorized to do so by name and commented only on condition of anonymity.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Republicans are rallying behind a different approach. Theirs is narrow legislation proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas that would allow detained families to stay together in custody while expediting their deportation proceedings.
Cruz’s bill would double the number of federal immigration judges, authorize new temporary shelters to house migrant families and limit the processing of asylum cases to no more than 14 days — a goal immigrant advocates say would be difficult to meet.
“While cases are pending, families should stay together,” tweeted Cruz, who is in an unexpectedly tough re-election battle.
The second-ranking Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, said they’re proposing a “humane, safe and secure family facility” where parents and minor children could be detained together. He said families would move to the head of the line for processing.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters he’s reaching out to Democrats for bipartisan backing, since the proposal would need to reach a 60-vote threshold to advance in that chamber.
