Kushner briefed Senate Republicans on his immigration plan. They left with lots of unanswered questions.
Jared Kushner, President Trump's senior advisers and son-in-law, briefed Senate Republicans Tuesday on his plan to overhaul America's immigration system. Senators emerged describing the plan as a set of goals designed more to unify Republicans ahead of the 2020 election than to be turned into law. Kushner got lots of pointed questions during the meeting, The Washington Post reports, and senators didn't get many answers.
Publicly, several GOP senators gave Kushner two cheers for presenting his ideas, which include moving immigration policy toward a merit-based system that favors higher-skilled immigrants using a point system, preceded by a mandatory civics test, the Post reports. "But privately, Republican officials said Kushner did not have clear answers to some questions from the friendly audience, prompting Trump's other senior adviser, Stephen Miller, to interrupt at times and take over the conversation. ... Some GOP senators left the meeting wondering whether Kushner understood the issue."
Specifically, Kushner told Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) his plan wouldn't address DACA recipients, making it a nonstarter with Democrats; couldn't answer Sen. John Cornyn's (R-Texas) question about what happens with the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.; and "confused the senators when he said a central principle in his immigration plan would be to unify immigrant families, including mothers and children," the Post reports. Cornyn declined to comment on the meeting. Collins told the Post afterward she's "concerned about the fate of the DACA young people, and they cannot be excluded from any immigration package."
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"He's in his own little world," one individual familiar with the meeting told the Post. "There were a number of instances where people had to step in and answer questions because he couldn't." A senior administration officials said Kushner offered "a detailed proposal that we can unify Republicans around," but "we aren't giving details out because we don't want details to be leaked." Read more at The Washington Post.
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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