The White House stated that President Donald Trump actually supports Speaker Paul Ryan’s plan to offer amnesty to children of illegal immigrants in exchange for modest border security proposals.
“The President fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters in a statement.
Shah’s remarks clarified Trump’s comment in a Friday morning interview on Fox and Friends that he would not sign the “more moderate” bill on immigration, which is the leadership version of an immigration compromise with Republican moderates.
The president’s remarks threw House Republican leaders into chaos for most of Friday afternoon as they tried to clarify his position. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise told Breitbart News that he would not whip votes for any bill not supported by the president. The president has not personally endorsed the Ryan bill.
Shah insisted that Trump was actually referring to the “discharge petition” signed by moderate Republicans and Democrats to force a vote in the House on DACA amnesty.
He confirmed that Trump would be willing to sign either bill proposed by Republicans.
“He would sign either the Goodlatte or the leadership bills,” Shah said.
Speaker Ryan is expected to call a vote on both bills next week, although neither of them is likely to earn enough of the 218 Republican votes needed to pass the House.
The nearly 300-page bill proposed by Speaker Ryan would offer amnesty to at least 1.8 million DACA-qualified illegal immigrants as well as amnesty for about 75,000 children of temporary foreign guest workers in exchange for $25 billion in wall funding and a temporary reduction to legal immigration.