Trump should be careful about promising a post-midterm GOP immigration fix

As Republicans in Congress scrambled to cobble together immigration reform legislation, President Trump’s tweeted assurances that stronger Republican majorities in Congress would enable passage of “the finest, fairest and most comprehensive Immigration Bills anywhere in the world” seem dubious at best.

Trump followed up that Friday morning tweet with another, contending, “Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November. 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!”

That argument would be much more persuasive if congressional Republicans weren’t struggling so hard to find any agreement on immigration legislation right now. Trump is right that Democrats are acting like obstructionists, but Republicans aren’t exactly showing signs of consensus. There’s deep division between centrists and conservatives on immigration reform, and that’s a problem bigger that won’t be magically erased by bigger majorities.

If such sentiments are adopted repeatedly by Trump, the effect could be a smaller scale repeat of the built-up “repeal and replace” expectations.

That said, the “Red Wave” is probably not coming to pass anyway. Republicans could plausibly maintain slim majorities in both chambers, but the odds of those majorities being substantially increased are slim, though the blue wave may not ultimately wash away as many Republican lawmakers as some initially predicted either. Still, there’s a clear need for Congress to pass immigration legislation, and with control of the presidency, Republicans would need to find some room for agreement internally if that’s going to happen now or after the midterms.