White House Backtracks on Trump Saying He Won't Sign GOP Compromise Bill That Would Stop Border Family Separations
President Donald Trump earlier said that he would not be signing a compromise bill, one that would moderate the "zero tolerance" immigration policy that, in its current form, has resulted in children being separated from their parents and other family members at the border.
"I certainly wouldn't sign the more moderate one," Trump stated in an interview on "Fox & Friends" on Friday, June 15, at the White House, explaining at the time that he is currently looking at the immigration proposals brought forward by the GOP members of the House.
One of them is the compromise bill, and the other is a more conservative measure. "I need a bill that gives this country tremendous border security. I have to have that," Trump emphasized in the interview, as quoted by the New York Post.
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Later that day, the White House has issued a clarification that Trump will still consider signing the moderate bill, and that the President's earlier statement was the result of a misunderstanding.
"The President fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill. In this morning's interview, he was commenting on the discharge petition in the House, and not the new package," Raj Shah, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary, said in a statement obtained by NBC News.
"He would sign either the Goodlatte or the leadership bills," Shah added.
The Trump administration's tough policy on illegal immigrants has resulted in migrant children being separated from their parents, an outcome that has been roundly criticized not just by both Republicans and Democrats but by Christian conservatives as well.
The proposed "moderate" bill that Trump referred to in his interview earlier this week would have put some restrictions on the administration's current policy on illegal immigrants, on top of adding $25 billion in funds for a wall to separate the country's southern border with Mexico.
