DREAMERS/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The White House on Friday [6-15-18] evening walked back Donald Trump’s criticism of a House GOP bill shielding Dreamers from deportation, saying in a statement that the president would sign the legislation. After a daylong, dizzying back-and-forth over Trump’s position, White House spokesman Raj Shah said Trump misunderstood a question on ‘Fox & Friends’ Friday morning when he argued he would not sign a ‘moderate’ immigration proposal scheduled for a vote next week. Many on Capitol Hill — and even in the White House — believed Trump was referring to immigration legislation released Thursday [6-14-18], the product of weeks of negotiations between centrist Republicans, conservatives and GOP leaders. But Shah argued that Trump was instead knocking a proposal backed by moderates and Democrats that would codify the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program without any significant immigration crackdown. Trump’s apparent embrace of the bill is a boon to House leaders hoping to pass the text next week. Conservatives need the president to give them cover to vote for a bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.”
-Rachael Bade and Nolan D. McCaskill, “White House, in reversal, embraces Dreamer legislation,” Politico, June 15, 2018 6:45 pm