white house Trump’s new immigration plan may be DOA — but it’s really about 2020 The president rolled out a new proposal that seems aimed at casting his hard-line immigration stance in a more pragmatic light for swing voters.

President Donald Trump knows the new immigration plan he unveiled Thursday is probably dead on arrival — but that isn’t the point.

Instead of trying to push it through Congress, Trump is already treating the plan less like a legislative blueprint and more as a campaign document as he readies for his tough 2020 re-election fight.


With some advisers concerned that his slash-and-burn, “build the wall” message falls flat with independent swing voters, Trump hopes to unite Republicans around what he casts as a more pragmatic approach friendly to American businesses in need of high-skilled labor, and to position himself as a problem-solver willing to work with recalcitrant Democrats.

Although Trump renewed his call for a Mexican border wall, Trump — reading from a Teleprompter in a traditional Rose Garden event — took an uncharacteristically mild tone on immigration, saying his plan has “heart” and calling America “welcoming.”

“The millions of legal immigrants who have come to America over the past half century are now cherished members of our national family,” he said.

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At the center of Trump’s plan is a merit-based system to admit more high-skilled, well-educated immigrants, rather than ones who enter the U.S. based on family ties or whether their native country has a low rate of immigration. It would also include measures boosting security at the southern border similar to ones he has called for previously.

Trump’s remarks were a contrast to the Trump of recent months who has issued dire warnings, often at freewheeling rallies, that marauding bands of criminals are storming America’s borders in a crisis requiring a state of emergency to address.

Some Republicans have urged Trump and his aides to soften his language and policies to regain support of suburban voters in several key electoral states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, that were instrumental to his 2016 win, according to a former Trump adviser who remains close to the White House.

Trump’s new plan also aims to show that he’s working hard to solve the immigration problem — but that Democrats are standing in his way.

"If for some reason, possibly political, we can't get the Democrats to approve this merit-based high-security plan, then we will get it approved immediately after the election, when we take back the House, keep the Senate, and of course, hold the presidency," Trump said. "But wouldn't it be nice to do it sooner than that?"

Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said it’s important for voters to be reminded that on this issue there will be a “clear choice” in 2020.

Now that he has declared a national emergency to unlock Pentagon funds for a wall on the southern border, McEnany said he will propose “yet another immigration plan that is reasonable, responsible, and will protect Americans.”

“The point of it is... to put forth what Republicans want to do on immigration, what they are for and not against,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which pushes for less immigration.

But even before Trump spoke Thursday, Democrats and immigration advocates called the plan “dead on arrival” and mocked it as a campaign tactic.

“The Rose Garden announcement of President Trump’s plan is nothing more than a straight-up 2020 campaign rally to feed red meat to his base,” said Tyler Moran, director of the Immigration Hub, an advocacy group.

A new points-based system would score applicants on attributes including education, English-speaking ability and an existing offer of employment from a U.S. company or organization.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a Trump ally, acknowledged that the plan is “not designed to become law.” “The White House plan is trying to unite the Republican Party around border security and merit-based immigration,” he said.

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both failed to push a major immigration overhaul but Trump has argued laws must change to handle a flood of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Border Patrol arrested nearly 99,000 immigrants at the southwest border in April, part of a surge in recent months that resembles higher levels of illegal immigration from the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. The administration seeks to detain as many suspected border crossers as possible, but many have been released because of a shortage of detention space.

Trump proposed a major rewrite of the nation’s immigration laws last year only to see it quickly killed by a Congress controlled by his own party. This plan is significantly scaled back from his last one — blasted by immigration hawks for including protections for millions of immigrants here illegally — as he seeks more Republican support.

“They think that this is the best and only way that they can get the momentum necessary to get Republicans unified,” said a business group representative briefed on a White House meeting about the plan. “This phase one is basically about a strategy to get Republicans to support the plan.”

In recent days, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who spent months drafting the proposal, has tried to sell the plan to Republican lawmakers, pushing them to get them on the same page with Trump. Any chip in Republican support will make it more difficult to fight the Democrats.

“If you’re going to tee up the issue for the 2020 campaign there needs to be one message and consensus,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which pushes for more enforcement.

Steve Cortes, a Trump ally who served on his Hispanic Advisory Council during the 2016 campaign and is serving on his 2020 re-election committee, said the Republican-controlled Senate should pass a bill reflecting Trump’s plan.

“Getting Senate approval would be a key issue to promote into 2020 elections,” he said. “The Democratic leadership is so out of step with even their own voters on immigration issues, that highlighting their extremism and obstruction could help the GOP recapture the House.”

The White House spent little time selling the plan to Democrats, who took control of the House in January and want to prioritize protecting so-called Dreamers, or young immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally. Trump’s new plan does not address that population.

On Monday, Trump heads to Montoursville, Pa. to headline a rally for his re-election campaign, where he’s expected to talk further about the proposal.

Ted Hesson contributed to this story.