Senators finalizing a bipartisan immigration deal insist it’s not dead even though Donald Trump opposes it, House Republicans are largely lined up against it and Mitch McConnell has privately cast doubt on it.
The bill, which is meant to address what almost all Republicans agree is a crisis at the southern U.S. border, is dividing lawmakers. It will serve as a testing ground for one of the year’s biggest questions in Congress: With an election months away and Trump poised to be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, is it possible to get anything done on immigration? And will anyone even bother to try if this latest effort falls through?
During a closed Republican Conference meeting on Wednesday, McConnell said the politics of the border “have changed” and he doesn’t want to undermine Trump as he seeks to run on immigration policy differences with the Biden administration, Punchbowl News first reported.