Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are at an impasse on immigration negotiations raising the stakes of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.
With just a matter of days until February 8 — the date Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said will mark the beginning of an immigration debate in the Senate — Congress is watching closely for any clues as to what Trump will and won’t accept and whether the President can get slow-moving negotiations in Congress reignited.
“I’m anxious to hear what he has to say, and I’m hoping he’ll let us know what it is he wants us doing,” said Sen. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota and member of GOP leadership.
The White House already unveiled a framework Thursday, which was their most substantial plan yet. But, lawmakers still appear stuck on how to move forward. The White House proposal offered a path to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants eligible for DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But, in exchange, the administration demanded $25 billion in border security funding and a significant overhaul for the legal immigration system, something Democrats have signaled would be untenable for them.
Immigration talks remain gridlocked with aides and members saying that a group of congressional whips has yet to have a significant breakthrough on DACA negotiations. Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, a member of the discussions, gave a frank analysis of the group’s product so far.
“It has not produced an agreement on any aspect of this,” Durbin said adding “we’re running out of time.”
Asked if the group was any further than they had been a week ago in finding a DACA proposal, Durbin was clear, “no.”
Republicans haven’t expressed much more optimism. Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas, described the whip meetings as “a lot of wheel spinning.”
“Talking about having a bunch of staff meetings at this point doesn’t strike me as particularly designed to achieve some consensus by February the eighth,” Cornyn said.
A separate bipartisan group of nearly 20 lawmakers has also met to try and build consensus and brainstorm ways to break the impasse, but the group has said their role isn’t to craft a bill, but merely “funnel” good ideas to their leadership.
“We want to be deferential,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Monday night.
Immigration has long been Trump’s signature issue, a politically risky topic that Republicans believe the President is uniquely well-situated to address given the role immigration played in his campaign. But, Trump has also had to contend with the fact that his party remains divided on it. Moderates like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake have tried to pull Trump to the center on DACA while forces within his own White House and senators like Tom Cotton of Arkansas have tried to encourage Trump to remain true to his base. The push and pull has left Trump careening at times from one extreme to another and lawmakers say they’ll be watching carefully Tuesday night to see what version of the President — an amenable negotiator or fiery showman — delivers the State of the Union.
Graham told reporters he needed to see the “Tuesday Trump” during the State of the Union, an allusion to the Trump that said in an earlier Tuesday meeting in January before a room full of cameras that he’d accept any bipartisan deal that lawmakers brought to him.
During the State of the Union, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they would be listening for any flexibility in Trump’s message. Would, for example, Trump be open, to further negotiations on his proposal? Or was his framework his last and best offer?
“I think the President has done a pretty good job, honestly, of saying he’s open for negotiating,” said South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
Some members have tried to encourage Trump to keep any DACA legislation narrow. Many fear that addressing so-called chain migration or family reunification and the diversity lottery could hurt the bill’s chances of passage.
“No one should take that to mean people don’t want to do anything. It’s just what gives us the highest chance of success is to have a base bill that everybody agrees on, and then add things to it as opposed to having a broad bill that then you are fighting to all the time to take things out of,” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said.