Illinois Republicans pick immigration reform over Trump

Two Illinois Republicans who have disavowed Donald Trump’s presidential bid are calling for immigration reform, further distancing themselves from the GOP nominee.

Sen. Mark Kirk and Rep. Bob Dold on Wednesday said reform must pass in 2017. They joined Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) at a meeting with Illinois business leaders and FWD.us, a Mark Zuckerberg-backed pro-immigration advocacy organization.

{mosads}Immigration reform is a priority because it’s “not only an economic or national security issue, it’s a human issue,” Dold told The Hill.

Dold and Kirk, both moderate Republicans, are vulnerable incumbents in a blue state where Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads by double digits.

Neither legislator is supporting Trump.

Trump has called for restrictive measures on nearly every form of immigration, while promoting the idea of building a wall on the border with Mexico and deporting more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country.

Dold said he disagrees with mass deportations because they “separate families,” adding immigration reform is not just about “low-skill workers, but also high-tech workers.”

“We’re educating the best and the brightest and as soon as they graduate we kick them out,” said Dold, referring to foreign students in American universities. “We should keep them here because we know that creates more American jobs.”

Immigration advocates want comprehensive immigration reform, rather than separate laws for different categories of immigrants. They fear the current coalition of activists and high-tech companies lobbying for reform could break up if laws were changed benefiting just one category.

“Many want comprehensive immigration reform and won’t look at anything else,” said Dold.

Since 2013’s failed Gang of Eight bill, however, Republican leadership has refused to consider comprehensive packages, arguing issues affecting documented and undocumented immigrants can’t be dealt with in the same way.

Dold said a “train” of bills could prove an adequate compromise because “there can be different pathways forward. Whether it’s a comprehensive bill, that I don’t know. But I believe it’s not a vehicle that would pass in the House.”

“Ultimately a package is going to have to be a bipartisan one,” said Dold.

Although the urgency to move on immigration reform in 2017 reflects one of Clinton’s major campaign promises, neither Kirk nor Dold is likely to support the Democratic candidate. Both have said they will write in a third candidate.

Kirk broke with Trump in June, after the real estate tycoon questioned a federal judge’s objectivity based on his Mexican heritage.

Trump lost Dold in July last year, when he criticized Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam POW, saying, “I like people who weren’t captured.”

“I was one of the first out back in 2015 to say that I would not support Mr. Trump,” Dold said.

McCain spent five-and-a-half years in a Hanoi prison after being shot down over North Vietnam. Dold’s uncle, the second U.S. pilot shot down in the Vietnam War, spent eight years and one day as a prisoner of war.