Bipartisan Immigration Plan Sets Political Test in Trump Era (2)

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is renewing a push for sweeping immigration legislation that combines penalties and legal pathways for the undocumented, weeks after Republicans approved more than $150 billion to support the Trump administration’s enforcement crackdown.

Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) on Tuesday announced the introduction of a modified version of a bill (H.R. 4393) they’ve pushed for years to provide a route to legal status for immigrants in the country illegally, while seeking to deter illegal border crossings.

The duo hopes to bridge the partisan divide on immigration while illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border are at record lows and President Donald Trump carries out his aggressive deportation agenda. Salazar made a direct appeal to Trump during a press conference Tuesday, calling on him to embrace the bipartisan approach and leave a legacy of solving intractable problems in the US immigration system.

The effort marks a test of lawmakers’ willingness to engage in broad immigration overhaul talks after years of failed attempts and increasingly fractious politics. Many Republicans have previously refused to discuss comprehensive efforts to remake the US immigration system until border control has been tightened and enforcement ramped up.

Read more: Bipartisan Immigration Play in House Faces a Political Reset

Crossings have plummeted and arrests in US cities have skyrocketed since Trump took office in January, and the enforcement push is set to intensify as the Department of Homeland Security deploys billions of dollars the GOP provided in its tax and spending bill earlier this month.

Yet many Republicans have signaled they’re not ready to move on to broad immigration talks. The House Homeland Security and Judiciary panels are set to restart work on legislation to restrict asylum access and bolster border security — an effort they see as essential to locking in Trump’s policies.

Salazar’s bill takes a more holistic approach. The bill would authorize extensive border wall construction, mandate e-Verify to check workers’ legal status, require detention of most border crossers at “humanitarian campuses,” and fast-track asylum decisions.

At the same time it would create a process, called the Dignity Program, to allow immigrants in the US illegally to pay $7,000 in restitution and meet other criteria to seek legal status. The pathway doesn’t include citizenship, and participants could not access federal benefits or entitlements.

Read more: House Immigration Bill Aims to Cut Through Partisan Impasse

The bipartisan group of lawmakers introducing the bill Tuesday includes 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Among them are Republican Reps. Mike Lawler (N.Y.), David Valadao (Calif.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Democratic Reps. Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.), who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Mike Levin (Calif.), and Jake Auchincloss (Mass.).

Bipartisan Doubts

Skepticism over the proposal’s likelihood of gaining traction is brewing on both sides of the aisle.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel, credited her colleagues for working on the bill but said the final product’s lack of a citizenship pathway makes it tougher for her and many other Democrats to support.

On the other side of the aisle, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whose committee would have jurisdiction over much of the bill, said enforcement-focused legislation is his top priority,, including a measure the panel will take up as soon as next week to penalize “sanctuary cities” that don’t fully cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Government this week, said she hasn’t reviewed the latest version of Salazar’s bill but expressed reservations about previous versions having what she considered “too much amnesty” for immigrants in the country illegally. She wants her party to instead focus on discrete immigration issues, such as expanding legal visas for agricultural workers.

“Are there simple, easy bites at the apple that we could do rather than like — I don’t think a giant ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ for immigration has the legs to pass right now, but I think if we could look at some of these smaller things,” Hinson said.