President Donald Trump said Friday that Republicans should stop "wasting their time" on immigration legislation until they have more members in the House and Senate after a "red wave" in the 2018 midterm elections.
Trump's tweet came one day after the House failed to pass a conservative immigration bill introduced by Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R.,Va.). Every House Democrat and 41 Republicans voted against the bill. Meanwhile, a vote on a more moderate "compromise" immigration bill written by GOP leadership, which the Trump administration also supports, was delayed until Friday and then pushed back until next week.
"Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November," Trump wrote. "Dems are just playing games, have no intention of doing anything to solves this decades old problem. We can pass great legislation after the Red Wave!"
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1010116816998490113
Trump also said that if Republicans can win more seats in November, then they will be able to "pass the finest, fairest and most comprehensive" immigration bills.
"Elect more Republicans in November and we will pass the finest, fairest and most comprehensive Immigration Bills anywhere in the world," Trump tweeted. "Right now we have the dumbest and the worst. Dems are doing nothing but Obstructing. Remember their motto, RESIST! Ours is PRODUCE!"
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1010115331380203520
Republican members of Congress had not initially planned on making changes to the compromise bill, but that appeared to change after Rep. Jeff Denham (R., Calif.) issued a statement on behalf of the legislation's backers following a House Republican Conference meeting.
"It gave our entire conference an opportunity to have a full discussion on these very important issues. While we've all been in negotiations the last several weeks, we feel like we've continued these good discussions on, but two new issues came up," Denham said. "We're going to spend the weekend, delay a vote until next week, and see if we can come to a compromise on those two final issues."
The compromise bill would allow immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children to apply for a six-year, indefinitely renewable legal status, and it would appropriate $25 billion for border-security funding. The bill would also allow children to stay with their parents who are detained for crossing the border illegally.