President Trump supports both of the House GOP immigration bills up for a vote in the next few weeks, a White House spokesman said Friday.
The announcement came after House Republicans hit the pause button on a plan to vote on immigration reform next week. They stopped action after President Trump warned in an impromptu TV appearance that he “wouldn’t sign the more moderate one.”
Republicans feared Trump was talking about a bill authored by Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which was written in concert with White House officials. It would incorporate the “four pillars” of Trump’s own immigration reform plan, including a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers.
A second bill, authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is expected to be a more conservative bill, but it is being modified. In original form, it limits immigration and provides a more difficult path to citizenship.
Republicans planned to put both Ryan and Goodlatte bills on the floor for a vote next week.
But Trump threw the vote into doubt Friday after threatening to take action against one of the bills.
The weekly schedule announcement was canceled Friday and Republicans said they won’t move the bill if Trump indeed opposes it.
But Trump was apparently talking about a process Republican moderates were pushing to force a vote on a series of bills that included Goodlatte’s measure but also two much more moderate measures that do not include Trump’s four immigration reform requirements. The vote on those measures was on the brink of happening via a discharge petition, which fell short of two signatures earlier this week.
“The President fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill,” White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said later on Friday. “In this morning’s interview, he was commenting on the discharge petition in the House, and not the new package. He would sign either the Goodlatte or the leadership bills.”
