Top House Democrat doubts D.C. Republicans can say no to Trump on immigration bill

FORT LAUDERDALE — The second-highest ranking Democrat in the U.S. House on Friday expressed skepticism that Capitol Hill Republicans will rebuff Donald Trump's demand they shelve discussions on an watershed immigration bill.

"I doubt it. Donald Trump's reach in House Republicans goes very deep," said U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, the Massachusetts Democrat who serves as the caucus' whip, or vote-counter. "I'm not sure that the Senate Republicans are going to be able to say no to Mr. Trump."

Clark was in South Florida on Thursday and Friday touring the scene of the horrific 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and then visiting the Jack & Jill children's center in Fort Lauderdale.

Clark's visit to the child care center along with U.S. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, was meant to highlight the need for added affordable and accessible childcare options. The two touted the benefits of Child Tax Credit and expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies provided by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Back on Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats and Republicans struggled to overcome Trump's opposition to a deal on an issue that has vexed federal lawmakers for decades.

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After years of inaction, Senate Democrats and Republicans were moving toward compromise immigration bill

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week appeared inching toward a comprehensive bill to alleviate an ongoing and still surging crisis. Beyond border cities and states, the influx of immigrants — 6.3 million since early 2021 — is putting cities as far as New York, Chicago, Boston and Denver in hardship.

Immigration has also been a seismic fault line in the American political landscape as well. Like abortion rights, it has been a polarizing, if not intractable, issue, further widening the gulf between liberals and conservatives.

But efforts to reach a bipartisan compromise were torpedoed Thursday when Trump told Republicans "we are better off not making a Deal" in a social media post. He said the United States needs "a Strong, Powerful, and essentially 'PERFECT' Border," but did not specify what his objections were to the bill being discussed in the Senate.

Trump's posting also seemed to confirm reports this month that he had been pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson to block a Senate immigration bill from reaching the House floor. On Jan. 18, Johnson said in an interview that he been "frequently" discussing the immigration dealing with Trump.

And it belies the urgency with which the former president has spoken about immigration, particularly since announcing his current White House comeback campaign in November 2022. Trump has said, without attribution, that he believes the number of people who have crossed the border unannounced to be closer to 15 million.

He has also said they are coming from prisons and mental institutions and include terrorists who intend to harm people living in the United States. All of which should prompt a desire to seize the moment and bolster security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Trump's missive, Clark said, made "explicit" why her Republican counterparts were suddenly recalcitrant on immigration reform and border security enforcement after years of haranguing Democrats and the Biden administration, including seeking the impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Clark said the Biden administration has amassed a long list of legislative achievements, including a landmark infrastructure plan and the first meaningful gun-safety law in 30 years. The last thing the former president wants is for the current president to log another milestone achievement.

"What he doesn't want to do is to let the president also be successful on delivering on immigration and border security," Clark said. "And he will choose (to block that) to influence the Republicans in the House to reject any compromise in order to keep the issue (alive)."

But Clark said a stiff-arm of an immigration deal would not be out of character for the GOP House majority.

Clark pointed out that Republicans have spent the past year in "civil war" among themselves. That has required Democrats to serve as the "adults in the room" with the votes to approve debt-ceiling measures and avoid a devastating default as well as to avert federal government shutdowns in October, November and this month.

"They are choosing the politics of this over creating a solution," she said of the threat to stymie immigration reform. "We know that in divided government, the only way we get to an answer around immigration is coming together and working together and compromising."

Clark said the GOP is choosing to "run campaigns off of immigration" rather than pass legislation that is essential to national security and the U.S. economy. In addition to a security issue, the border is an entry point for deadly fentanyl shipments, and the country desperately needs a system that offers a "humane" way for people seeking asylum to have their claims fairly decided.

The only way to achieve that, she said, is for bipartisan give-and-take.

"That's what compromise takes," Clark said. "That's what's necessary to fix our immigration system, and it is really dangerous and sad to watch the Republicans again choose to create an issue rather than a solution."

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.