Divided US government raises questions on Trump's political control

America will get its first taste of divided government under President Donald Trump this week when a Democratic House tries to wrest control of the political agenda from Trump, who appears determined to keep the focus on border security, immigration and his “big, beautiful” wall.
 
After the midterm elections ushered in the most diverse freshman class in history, House Democrats intend to put a spotlight on the issues that worked well for them during the campaign: diminishing the influence of the wealthy and connected, expanding voting rights, lowering prescription drug costs and passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
 
Trump, on the defensive and presiding over a federal government that remains partially closed, is trying to stomp on that message. On Tuesday, as the government shutdown was in its 11th day, Trump invited congressional leaders of both parties to a briefing on border security Wednesday afternoon. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday night that Trump would attend.

 

It would be the first visit by Democratic leaders to the White House since December 11, when the president told Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer he would be “proud to shut down the government for border security.” Trump appeared to make a gesture of peace ahead of Wednesday’s meet.
 
“Border Security and the Wall ‘thing’ and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker!” he said Tuesday on Twitter. “Let’s make a deal?”
 
Just what deal Trump had in mind was not clear. While Pelosi has repeatedly signaled she would like to find a compromise that would allow the government to reopen.

 
She has also made it clear that a wall cannot be part of any such deal, whether or not that leads to a messy start to her speakership.
 
After she is elected speaker on Thursday, she hopes to introduce a transparency-in-governing measure to portray Democrats as a responsible governing party and draw a contrast between them and Mr. Trump’s scandal-ridden administration. The measure would require disclosure of shadowy political donors, end gerrymandering of congressional districts and expand voting rights.
 
But their first order of business will be reopening the government, as Ms. Pelosi said Tuesday on Twitter in response to Mr. Trump.

 
The president “has given Democrats a great opportunity to show how we will govern responsibly & quickly pass our plan to end the irresponsible #TrumpShutdown,” she said, “just the first sign of things to come.”
 
Democrats also intend to use their first months in the majority to push for a bipartisan infrastructure bill and legislation to lower prescription drug costs, issues that they believe will have bipartisan appeal.
 
The Democrats plan to pass two bills on Thursday. The first includes six bipartisan spending measures that would fully fund agencies like the Interior Department and the Internal Revenue Service through the end of the fiscal year in September. The second would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, with $1.3 billion for fencing but no money for a wall on the Mexican border.

 
With the plan facing a shaky future in the Senate and an intransigent president, some rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties are suggesting that a deal to revamp the nation’s immigration laws, pairing border security and protections for some undocumented immigrants, may be the way out of the stalemate.
 
“How about comprehensive immigration reform?” Representative Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, said on CNN on Tuesday, when asked how Democrats intend to compromise with Mr. Trump.
 
One of Mr. Trump’s closest allies, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, has revived his long-stalled immigration proposal to marry $5 billion for the wall with immigration law changes that might appeal to Democrats, including three-year renewable work permits for young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, known as Dreamers.

 
Mr. Trump has raised the prospects of broader talks on Twitter. “We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with,” he said last week. “Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!”
 
Mr. Trump has also claimed, somewhat misleadingly, that Democrats had already voted for a wall.
 
“I’m in the Oval Office,” he tweeted on Monday. “Democrats, come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for Border Security, including the Wall. You voted yes in 2006 and 2013.”

 
He was referring to the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized building a fence along 700 miles of the southern border, and to a 2013 comprehensive immigration bill. That bill passed the Senate with 68 votes but did not make it out of the House. It combined the Republican priority of enhanced border security with the Democratic goal of offering legalization and a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.
 
Democratic leaders are wary of any immigration negotiations with Mr. Trump, whom they view as an unreliable partner. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the new chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in an interview on Tuesday that Democrats would not again broach immigration before the government is reopened.

 
“We do have a broken immigration system that needs to be fixed in a sustainable and bipartisan way,” Mr. Jeffries said. “However, it’s impossible to have a mature conversation about comprehensive immigration reform in the midst of a reckless Trump shutdown sparked by his desire to build a medieval border wall.”
 
Democrats have not forgotten that a year ago, when they talked to Mr. Trump about DACA, he promised to work with them on a “bill of love,” only to back away, prompting Mr. Schumer to declare that negotiating with Mr. Trump was like “negotiating with Jell-O.”
 

Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said the challenge lies with the Republican majority in the Senate.
 
“If you want to get a bipartisan immigration bill in the coming months, you’re going to have to have Republican senators willing to work across the aisle to get things done,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “I don’t think they can give President Trump the pen to write every word of legislation.”
 
At the same time, Democratic leaders will face pressures of their own, from a freshman class packed with first- and second-generation immigrants, Latinos and immigrant advocates. House Democratic leaders and their staffs have indicated to immigration advocates that they plan to act on legislation to protect immigrants who face an imminent threat of deportation after the shutdown is over. That proposal would grant permanent residence to DACA recipients and to others who came under Temporary Protected Status, which Mr. Trump has also moved to rescind.

 
“What we want in 2019 is early action on a bill that combines a permanent solution for Dreamers and for T.P.S. holders,” said Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice, an immigrant advocacy group.
 
Democrats have already begun strategizing privately around such a bill, which would most likely pass the House with little to no Republican support. But Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, has shown little appetite for politically tricky measures that divide Republicans or put them at odds with Mr. Trump — particularly on immigration.
 
The issue could expose fissures among Democrats as well. Liberals are agitating for measures such as abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that carries out deportations, or killing funding for immigration detention beds and enforcement agents.

 
But Democratic congressional leaders and many rank-and-file members, including freshmen elected in districts carried in 2016 by Mr. Trump, say they are all for border security and enforcement, as long as it is effective and reasonable.
 
Broader immigration legislation “would be nice, if we had a reliable person at the other side of the table to negotiate with,” said Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia. “I wouldn’t be so bold as to predict a magic bullet.”
 ©2018 The New York Times Service