Trump pledges to veto any immigration push in Congress that doesn’t fund his wall – after he backed down and signed the last spending bill to avoid government shutdown
The president wants a ‘real wall’ in any legislation he signs
Moderate Republicans in his party are working with Democrats to bring up legislation for a vote that would protect the Dreamers but doesn’t fund the wall
Trump caved and signed a budget bill in March that did not fully fund his wall but vowed: ‘I will never sign another bill like this again’
Speaker Ryan swore at Republican members in frustration over their work with Democrats on pushing for a vote on immigration legislation
By EMILY GOODIN
DAILYMAIL.COM
24 May 2018
President Donald Trump has drawn a line in the sand on immigration legislation – it will either include a border wall or he won’t sign it.
‘Unless it includes a wall, and I mean a wall, a real wall, and unless it improves very strong border security, there’ll be no approvals from me,’ he said on ‘Fox & Friends’ Thursday morning.
Trump threatened to shutdown the government in March if he didn’t get his wall but eventually caved and signed a budget deal put together by a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders.
That $1.3 trillion budget included $1.6 billion to fund a wall but estimates say it would take $25 billion to build one that stretches across the entire US-Mexico border.
The president called the initial arm of money a ‘down payment’ but wants his border wall fully funded.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell promised to make immigration reform a priority in return for Trump’s signature.
Since then, the president and Congress have been locked in a show-down over the details with Trump wanting his wall and Democrats demanding protection for the so-called ‘Dreamers,’ the illegal immigrants who came to the country as children.
But it’s members of the president’s own party who are engaged in a parliamentary maneuver to muck up the process.
Moderate Republicans in the House of Representatives have joined with Democrats in signing a discharge petition that, with enough signatures, would prompt votes on a series of immigration bills, including a measure that would give permanent legal status to the Dreamers, including those protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that Trump canceled.
Federal judges eventually ruled against Trump and required the administration to keep the DACA program open while Congress debates a fix.
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