It’s not just illegal immigration: Donald Trump has thrown his enthusiastic support behind slashing legal immigration, too.
In Republican politics, we tend to think of the immigration debate in binary terms: one GOP contingent takes a more progressive view towards undocumented immigrants, supporting measures such as the Dream Act and a pathway to citizenship, while another contingent pushes a hardline stance, condemning reforms as “amnesty.”
But this framework is ultimately incomplete, because there are plenty of Republicans who aren’ t just concerned with immigrants who’ ve entered the country illegally; they also want to curtail legal immigration.
Today, Donald Trump threw his support behind just such a proposal. NBC News reported:
It’s that last part that’s going to be the most controversial. Trump isn’ t just talking about moving away from a lottery system; he’s specifically throwing his support behind a proposal that drastically reduces the number of immigrants who can come to the United States legally.
And while this may seem predictable given Trump’s rhetoric about immigration since he launched his presidential campaign two years ago, today’s announcement was not a foregone conclusion. As NBC News’ Benjy Sarlin reported earlier this year, many in the business community are enthusiastic supporters of legal immigration, and Trump had signaled to them that he’ d be on their side.
Of course, Trump had also told opponents of legal immigration that he’ d be with them. (When politicians don’ t really understand what they’ re saying, they tend to agree with the last person they spoke to.)
Regardless, now that the president has taken a side in a very public way, what happens?
In the short term, nothing. The Cotton-Perdue proposal Trump endorsed today is just a bill, which to date hasn’ t gained much traction. There’s no imminent vote on the measure in either chamber, and today’s White House event was basically a glorified press release: it was Trump’s way of letting everyone know that he’s found a bill he likes.
But as Roll Call noted, plenty of Republicans don’ t care.
The responses from congressional Democrats are likely to be even less kind.
In other words, the president may like this bill, but if he’s expecting it to reach his desk anytime soon, Trump should probably lower his expectations.
