Congressional leaders will meet with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly Tuesday morning to discuss President Trump’s controversial executive order regarding immigration from certain Muslim-dominated countries.
Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Homeland Security committees chairmen Rep. Mike McCaul and Sen. Ron Johnson and the panels’ top committee Democrats will pepper Kelly with questions about the order that caught the Hill flat-footed, Hill sources confirmed.
Some top Republicans, as well as rank-and-file GOPers, were stunned that Trump pulled the trigger on such an expansive order without input from key cabinet officials, such as the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security.
They should’ve been consulted, said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.
“I am worried about substance,” Dent said. “I have more questions than answers.”
Dent said he—like apparently all members of Congress and even top Trump officials—first heard the order was signed via the media. Those who had some knowledge that an executive order was in the works sthought it was still being worked on, knowledgeable congressional sources said.
The order’s rollout “we can all agree has not gone well,” Dent said.
The White House issued an executive order “on vetting that was not vetted appropriately,” said Jeff Marschner, deputy chief of staff to Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va. “It appears there was little interagency involvement and the executive order was too broad,” he said.
Dent said that, fortunately, the courts have intervened and stayed the order while the White House, security officials and Congress can figure out how to properly implement it.
Rank-and-file House Republicans are looking to their leadership and the Trump administration to explain why Trump acted so hastily. Privately, many are also concerned about the “optics” of legal residents being detained in airports around the globe.
House Republicans hope Kelly can shed some light on where the GOP goes from here and how the Trump administration plans to protect green card holders in their own districts.
Dent said he’s involved with an Allenton, Pa., family who got caught in this weekend’s dragnet.
A Syrian Christian family in his district was expecting relatives to move to the U.S. this weekend but they were detained en route to the Keystone State, he said.
