Trump: I’ll Sign Any Immigration Bill Congress Sends Me

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

When I wrote earlier this morning that an immigration deal was possible, I didn’t realize that President Trump was about to host a White House meeting on the very subject. What’s more, reporters were allowed in the room for the first hour, so we all got a view into where things stand. Here are some excerpts from CNN’s real-time coverage.

“I think my positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with,” Trump said….Trump added if the group presents him with a plan he does not like he would support it anyway. “If they come to me with things I’m not in love with, I’m gonna do it. Because I respect them,” he said.

….Rep. Bob Goodlatte says he will introduce a bill that “addresses the DACA concerns” tomorrow….adding that legislatures hoped to “do it in a bipartisan fashion and put our best foot forward.” “It will address DACA in a permanent way, not a temporary short-term thing. We are going to address the border enforcement and security and the wall,” he said.

….Sen. Lindsey Graham, foreshadowing how he believes some conservatives will react to the DACA discussions unfolding on television, said he could “hear the drumbeat” on Fox News and that “right-wing radio and TV talk show hosts are going to beat the crap out of us.”

….President Trump told lawmakers he would provide political cover for them if they moved forward on comprehensive immigration reform….“I’ll take the heat. I don’t care. I don’t care. I’ll take all the heat you want to give me, and I’ll take the heat off both the Democrats and the Republicans.”

….Here’s how Trump hopes to see things move: “We’ll do DACA and we can certainly start comprehensive immigration reform the following afternoon. We will take an hour off and start. I do believe that. Once we get DACA done and it’s done properly with security and everything else, if it’s done properly, we have taken a big chunk of comprehensive out of the negotiations. I don’t think it’s going to be that complicated.

Trump has a childlike belief that nothing is very complicated, but in this case he could be right. The Senate passed a comprehensive bill a few years ago, and it could serve as the outline for a new one. Getting the votes to pass it will be hard, but the policy part really isn’t all that complicated.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate