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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellMitch McConnellSchumer to Trump: Get your own 'act together' before blaming Dems GOP hasnt reached out to centrist Dem senators Schumer: Trump's speech 'detached' from reality MORE (R-Ky.) said Senate Republicans are anxious to act on an immigration reform proposal from President Trump, something that was not on the GOP agenda just a few weeks ago.

Trump surprised lawmakersTuesdayevening during his first address to a joint session of Congress by calling for action on a broad immigration reform measure with bipartisan support.

Trump made similar remarks during a private session with television news anchors the afternoon before his speech to Congress.

We know we need stronger border. We know we need a legal immigration plan that actually works. Yeah, were very much open to an immigration proposal from the administration, anxious to take a look at what the president would recommend, he said.

When asked if Senate Republicans would be open to a reform measure that would grant legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants who are in the United States, McConnell said, Were certainly open to see what the president recommends.

Were certainly in agreement that there are a lot of things that need to be changed by the way that we currently handle legal immigration as well as the serious illegal immigration problem, he added.

Trump on Tuesday evening announced that he has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create a new office to help victims of crimes perpetrated by illegal immigrants and that construction of a new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border will soon begin.

Trump said he believes real and positive immigration reform is possible as long as lawmakers focus on the goals of improving jobs and wages for American citizens, strengthening border security and enforcing immigration laws by prosecuting violators.

He said the nations immigration laws should place more priority on bringing in skilled workers instead of what he called this current system of lower-skilled immigration.

He argued the country should follow a basic principle that those seeking to enter a country ought to be able to support themselves financially.

Centrist Democratic Sen. Joe ManchinJoe ManchinThe Hill's 12:30 Report Senate confirms Zinke to lead Interior GOP hasnt reached out to centrist Dem senators MORE (W.Va.), who discussed immigration reform with Trump at a recent White House meeting, said he was surprised the topic came up in Tuesdaysspeech.

Do you think you were going to hear anything on immigrationtonight? he asked a reporter.

At least we have conversation now. I think thats what we have to do, Manchin added.

See the article here:
McConnell: Republicans 'anxious' for Trump immigration reform proposal - The Hill

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