President Trump on Thursday renewed his call to end the filibuster in the Senate, venting his frustration as his immigration agenda has hit a stalemate on Capitol Hill.
“What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills when you need 9 votes by Democrats in the Senate, and the Dems are only looking to Obstruct (which they feel is good for them in the Mid-Terms),” Trump tweeted. “Republicans must get rid of the stupid Filibuster Rule-it is killing you!”
The House is set to vote Thursday on legislation that would impose stricter immigration policies, including funding for a border wall and cuts to legal immigration, while ending the Trump administration’s practice of separating children from parents who illegally cross the border.
{mosads}But ending the filibuster, a move that is strongly opposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), would do little to ease passage of the immigration package. The measures have encountered internal opposition in the House, and it is not clear if the bills have the votes to pass the lower chamber.
The president has repeatedly called on the Senate to scrap the filibuster, which imposes a 60-vote threshold on most major legislation, blaming it for Republicans’ past legislative failures.
Trump and top Cabinet officials have spent the past several days lobbying fence-sitting GOP lawmakers to back the legislation, but the president’s latest comments indicate he’s resigned to the possibility the measures will fail.
Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order intended to end the family separation policy after it encountered growing backlash at home and around the world. But he had still been urging Congress to pass legislation that addresses his immigration priorities.
The president earlier Thursday repeated his head-scratching assertion that the government should not hire more immigration judges, even though his executive order directs the Justice Department to speed up consideration of cases involving families.
“We shouldn’t be hiring judges by the thousands, as our ridiculous immigration laws demand, we should be changing our laws, building the Wall, hire Border Agents and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and not let people come into our country based on the legal phrase they are told to say as their password,” he wrote.
There is no plan to hire thousands more judges. Legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) would increase the number of immigration judges by several hundred, an idea that has bipartisan support.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions also sent 18 additional judges to the southern border in May to handle an uptick in Central American migrants crossing the border to seek asylum.