Republican Party gets closer to solving immigration battle as Trump ‘backs compromise legislation’
Paul Ryan, the House speaker, spoke of the president’s support as Republicans tried to forge a bill that would appeal to both moderates and conservatives
A standoff between House Republican leaders over immigration may finally come to an end after US President Donald Trump signalled support for compromise legislation, House Speaker Paul Ryan told Republican lawmakers on Wednesday.
Details of the measure remained in negotiation between conservative and moderate Republicans, and whatever emerges faces an uphill climb.
The president’s backing would bolster the chances that the package could pass the House over what would likely be solid Democratic opposition, but enough Republicans could still defect to sink it.
Ryan addressed his colleagues in a closed-door session a day after planning two votes next week on a pair of competing Republican immigration measures – one by conservatives and the other a still-evolving plan that leaders hope will appeal to both ends of the party’s spectrum.
Ryan said that he spoke to Trump on Tuesday and that “the president seemed very supportive” of the compromise bill that was being drafted, Representative Chris Collins of New York, told reporters.
The bills would represent the Republicans’ bid to deal with Dreamers, young immigrants brought to the US illegally as children. Trump last year terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, which has temporarily shielded hundreds of thousands of them from deportation. Federal courts have kept the programme functioning for now.