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President Donald Trump offered mixed signals Tuesday about his plans on immigration, suggesting privately that he is open to an overhaul bill that could provide a pathway to legal status - but not citizenship - for potentially millions of people who are in the United States illegally but have not committed serious crimes.

Yet Trump made no mention of such a proposal during his prime-time address to a joint session of Congress, instead highlighting the dangers posed by illegal immigration.

At a private White House luncheon with television news anchors ahead of his speech, Trump signaled an openness to a compromise that would represent a softening from the crackdown on all undocumented immigrants that he promised during his campaign and that his more hard-line supporters have long advocated.

"The time is right for an immigration bill as long as there is compromise on both sides," Trump told the anchors. His comments, reported by several of the journalists present, were confirmed by an attendee of the luncheon.

Trump said he hopes both sides can come together to draft legislation in his first term that holistically addresses the country's immigration system, which has been the subject of intense and polarizing debate in Washington for more than a decade. Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush both failed in their attempts to push comprehensive immigration reform bills through Congress that offered a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Trump's comments to the news anchors were particularly striking given his long history of criticism of U.S. immigration policy and a presidential campaign centered on talk of mass deportations of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued new guidelines that dramatically expand the pool of immigrants that could be targeted for removal.

His remarks came shortly before he met at the White House with family members of Americans killed by illegal immigrants. Trump invited those family members to sit near first lady Melania Trump at his address, part of an emotional appeal by the president and his administration to build support for stronger border-control measures.

At the meeting with television anchors, Trump suggested he is willing to address legal status for those who are in the country illegally but have not committed crimes. But he would not necessarily support a pathway to citizenship, except perhaps for "Dreamers," a group of nearly 2 million who were brought into the country illegally as children, according to a report by CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper, who attended the luncheon.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House principal deputy press secretary, said she could not confirm Trump's comments in the private event.

"The president has been very clear in his process that the immigration system is broken and needs massive reform, and he's made clear that he's open to having conversations about that moving forward," Sanders said in a Tuesday afternoon briefing with reporters. "Right now his primary focus, as he has made [clear] over and over again, is border control and security at the border."

Trump on Tuesday reiterated his vow to build a "great, great wall" along the U.S.-Mexico border and increase funding for federal law enforcement efforts in border areas.

"As we speak, we are removing gang members, drug dealers and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens," Trump said. "Bad ones are going out as I speak tonight."

It is unclear whether Trump will follow through on pursuing an immigration compromise. The president in the past has made comments, in private or in media interviews, that have not been borne out by his administration's policies. For example, he has yet to follow through on his pledge to investigate alleged voter fraud in the 2016 election.

In early February, Trump expressed openness to revisiting past immigration overhaul efforts, including the failed 2013 "Gang of Eight" bill, which drew opposition from Republicans. At a meeting with moderate Democratic senators, Trump told them he thought that bill was something he was interested in revisiting, according to the senators.

The White House later denied that Trump was open to the legislation and said that he considered the bill to be "amnesty."

In his address to Congress, Trump called on lawmakers to pursue reforms to move the nation's legal immigration program toward a more "merit-based" system.

Trump said curbing the number of "lower-skilled" immigrants who are entering the country would help raise wages for American workers who would be able to "enter the middle class and do it quickly. And they will be very, very happy indeed."

Though he didn't spell out details in his speech, Trump's aides have envisioned proposals to dramatically slash the number immigrants who receive green cards - granting them permanent residence in the United States - which stands at more than 1 million per year. If enacted, such moves could be the first major cuts to legal immigration in more than half a century.

After his meeting with the anchors Tuesday, Trump met in the Oval Office with Jamiel Shaw Sr., whose son was shot by a gang member in Los Angeles in 2008, and Jessica Davis and Susan Oliver, who were married to California police officers killed in the line of duty in 2014.

Trump's spotlight on the victims' families has sparked an outcry among those who charge that the president is exaggerating the risks to sow public fear and make his proposals more politically expedient. Studies have shown that immigrants, including the estimated 11 million living in this country illegally, have lower crime rates than the native-born population.

"It is consistent with the campaign and also with the political tone of the executive orders he signed," said Randy Capps, director of research at the Migration Policy Institute. "They are very clearly trying to highlight a criminal element that does exist in the unauthorized population. But they are implying it's a broad population, when we believe it's a narrow population from the statistics we've seen."

Trump was joined several times on the campaign trail by family members of victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, including "angel moms," whose children had been killed. As president, Trump has pledged to raise their profiles, and the new DHS guidelines issued last week included a provision to create a new office to support such victims and their families.

"I want you to know - we will never stop fighting for justice," Trump said Tuesday night, addressing his guests. "Your loved ones will never be forgotten, we will always honor their memory."

Read more from the original source:
Trump sends mixed signals on immigration reform - Chicago Tribune

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she would not sign off on an immigration reform bill from President Trump that didn't allow a pathway to citizenship for the millions of people already in the country without documentation.

"It's very important for our country to say the path to citizenship is the dignity these people need," she said Wednesday morning on MSNBC.

Pelosi said one the areas that Democrats want to work with Trump, when the time comes, is immigration reform.

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"If it's something that forbids citizenship, no I couldn't sign onto that. If we want to talk about I think there are plenty of ways we can work in a bipartisan way on immigration, in fact we have to," Pelosi said.

She said she was hopeful about Trump's statements to news anchors Tuesday before his speech that reporters said were a sign he would be open to legal status for illegal immigrants who haven't committed a crime. But Trump kept to his hardline immigration position during the speech, and Pelosi admitted that a shift by Trump would face blowback in his own party, she said.

"Whatever the president might propose, it'll be interesting how the Congress disposes of it," she said.

Pelosi said her conference isn't planning on cooperating with Trump's agenda for the time being because she sees nothing worth backing. She said Democrats would present their own agenda for governing when the time comes.

"When we believe the time is right, we will put forth our positive agenda, and not while people are enamored with a snake oil salesman," she said. "All we have is rhetoric, we don't have any legislation."

Also from the Washington Examiner

An aide to President Trump disputed reports that national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster told aides not say "radical Islamic terrorism" during his first meeting with his new staff last week.

Reports from the meeting indicated McMaster, known to have an independent streak, said using the term "radical Islamic terrorism" wasn't helpful in fighting terrorism. But, deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka said that report wasn't accurate.

"He didn't actually say that. You shouldn't believe everything you read in the New York Times," Gorka told NPR Wednesday.

He added, "He didn't actually say that. He was talking specifically about ISIS at the time. We're talking about the broader threat.

03/01/17 2:40 PM

Continued here:
Pelosi: Immigration reform bill must include path to citizenship - Washington Examiner

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said Tuesday on Special Report with Bret Baier that if President Trump wants to lead a movement for comprehensive immigration reform, he is the man who can do it.

This is a Nixon to China kind of proposition, a guy who has been accused of just about everything, talked about, you know, border enforcement with people going around in trucks deporting people, said Krauthammer. If this president proposes when it comes to the DREAMERs, the young people brought here as children, he wants to legalize them, that would be the starting point.

Krauthammer went on to say a comprehensive immigration reform deal has been waiting for years and years, and suggested that, with the urging of the president for a negotiation, Republicans would be willing to concede on a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants if Democrats agree to airtight, strong border security.

That means not just a fence or a wall or border security at the border, but things like a system to verify citizenship inside the country and a visa tracking program, he said. If you get that, you can get a national consensus and put the immigration issue behind us.

Read more:
Krauthammer on consensus immigration reform: '[Trump] is the man who can do it' - Fox News

Ahead of President Donald Trump's first speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, we got somewhat surprising news out of the White House: Trump, whose thundering anti-immigrant rhetoric was central to his hair-raising campaign, is actually open to the kind of immigration reform his predecessor promised but couldn't deliver.

Or at least that was the "news," in the form of anonymous accounts from a sort-of off-the-record White House briefing with TV anchors in which Trump said some vague stuff about how "the time is right for an immigration bill."

Then came the speech, which was anything but the anonymously-assured "departure" from Trump's cold, hard stance on immigration. He labeled immigrants as a drag on the economy and a threat to national security. He hinted at a shift to a "merit-based system" of immigration, the right's longstanding euphemism for allowing fewer people to come to the country as family members of U.S. citizens. And even as the president urged Congress to reduce "lower-skilled immigration," it's not clear if Team Trump is even sold on the idea of increasing visas for high-skilled immigrants Trump chief strategistSteve Bannon, for instance, worries even those immigrants could threaten our "civic society."

Not a peep about a legal pathway for the millions of undocumented immigrants who aren't criminals and have deep ties to the country. Here's most of what Trump had to say about immigration reform in his speech:

It will save countless dollars, raise workers' wages, and help struggling families, including immigrant families enter the middle class. And they will do it quickly, and they will be very, very happy indeed.

I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals: To improve jobs and wages for Americans, to strengthen our nation's security, and to restore respect for our laws."

But a departure from the Trump script it was not.

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Trump Promises "Immigration Reform" That Will Make People "Very, Very Happy" - San Antonio Current

There were two important points related to immigration in last nights speech. The first is that the media hype about Trump possibly floating an amnesty plan was nonsense. It was driven by comments from the president himself to reporters earlier in the day that hed be open to a deal that offered a non-citizenship amnesty to non-violent illegal aliens and a regular citizenship amnesty for the DACAs (illegals who came before age 16 whom Obama lawlessly amnestied). I dont think that was planned; hes seemed to embrace a Jeb-like immigration plan in past off-the-cuff comments, only to back away when speaking formally, and that seems to be what happened. Taking this seriously was wishful thinking by the media and paranoia by immigration hawks (including myself) though the paranoia, or better, eternal vigilance, is always necessary.

The more important takeaway was his emphasis on the jobs impact of immigration, and legal immigration specifically. Yes, he highlighted the national security and public safety aspects of the issue, recognizing Jamiel Shaw and others whove lost loved ones to illegal-alien criminals apprehended then released by the authorities. But he also said By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone.

But going beyond illegal immigration, he also said, Protecting our workers also means reforming our system of legal immigration. The current, outdated system depresses wages for our poorest workers, and puts great pressure on taxpayers. He called for a merit-based system more like that of Canada or Australia, one that emphasizes skills and education rather than family connections. This seemed to be an implicit endorsement of at least the general approach that Tom Cotton and David Perdue have taken in their RAISE Act to prune back family immigration rights to spouses and minor children of Americans and legal residents.

It was important, both for policy and politics, that he included to improve jobs and wages for Americans in the goals of immigration reform, along with to strengthen our nations security, and to restore respect for our laws. Most illegal aliens, let alone legal immigrants, arent bad hombres, but the mass admission of even good hombres is bad for American workers. To flesh out that policy, it would help to see some emphasis on worksite enforcement and E-Verify, to go along with arresting and deporting criminals.

See more here:
Immigration in Trump's Quasi-SOTU - National Review