President Donald Trump still wants an immigration bill passed, even after the Supreme Court rejected his administration's appeal aimed at ending protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said Tuesday.
"President Trump is still very interested in being able to get a great immigration bill done as quickly as possible," Zeldin told Fox News' "Happening Now." "You still have additional leverage points. Right now we're negotiating the next funding bill. Congressional Republicans are engaged in this discussion on the House side."
Trump supports a bill sponsored by Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, which includes several components including funding to ensure border security an an end to chain migration and the visa lottery, Zeldin said.
"It is a legislative solution that has a growing amount of support in the House," Zeldin said. "It would be unfortunate if any congressional Democrats don't feel the pressure anymore to engage in this conversation, because it would be great to have them at the table if they are willing."
There are some Democrats who would like to engage in the talks, Zeldin said, but he is not seeing it from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is not, even privately, showing interest in a compromise.
Instead, Pelosi talked for eight hours on the House floor to praise illegal immigration rather than to discuss solutions to end it, Zeldin commented.
There is a growing amount of support for the Goodlatte/McCaul bill, he added, and it would be helpful if Democrats would be engaged in the process, as the House Republicans "aren't going to just pass a DACA bill and not have any discussion of how to actually stop illegal immigration."
A clean DACA bill, Zeldin concluded, would only serve to increase immigration.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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