Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has addressed President Donald Trump and the ongoing immigration debate.
Rauner took questions at an event in Rockford on Thursday and praised the president for changing his policy on separating immigrant children from their families when detained at the border.
“We’ve been in touch with the White House and members of Congress to express our concern,” the governor said. “I want to thank and applaud President Trump. He signed an executive order to end that.”
Rauner has avoided using the president's name in the past. Pundits have speculated that Rauner's hesitancy to even speak Trump’s name was out of fear that it would become political fodder this November. He took a more moderate stance on the immigration debate.
“I hope the president and Congress can come together to get comprehensive immigration reform. We need to end illegal immigration but we also need to be compassionate about not separating families,” he said.
While Rauner was answering questions in Rockford, the U.S. House voted down a hard-line immigration bill.
Illinois’ Republicans supported the bill with the exception of suburban GOP Rep. Peter Roskam. All Democrats voted against it.
Taylorville Republican Rodney Davis spoke on the House floor Thursday about the bill.
“We could be the leaders who finally secure our borders [and] provide certainty for people who were brought here as children, move our legal immigration system to a merit-based process and keep families together,” he said.
Davis is now pushing for support on the other bill.
Others weighed in after the vote.
“I opposed this legislation because it did not provide real solutions to our current immigration crises,” said Naperville Democratic Rep. Bill Foster. “It would have exacerbated the current humanitarian crisis on our border as children continue to spend the night in metal cages away from their parents. It also did not provide a solution to the hundreds of thousands of DREAMers.”
“Congress must act to prevent this upsetting and unnecessary situation from occurring again. The immigration debate is far from settled,” GOP Rep. John Shimkus said Friday. “I look forward to continuing to work through the legislative process toward a solution that is just and fair.”
House leaders plan to vote on the other of the two bills next week.
Quit with the fake media on the children. They are getting good care. Why do they come in either their children in the first place
ReplyDeleteJust to use them as a scape goat? All the cries for asylum purposely for pity sake? Come on and then the children are smuggled with drugs I hope Trump stands strong with all this. Let's make it so the children can stay with the parent until they get their hearing for what is to be true. We need stand strong for our country! Another thing, when we have people coming into our country make sure they pay their taxes and quit with the free stuff that keeps our country in big deficit!!