President Trump says Republicans should 'stop wasting their time on immigration' until after midterms

WASHINGTON — Two days after he urged Congress in an executive order to revamp the nation's immigration laws, President Donald Trump said Friday that Republicans should "stop wasting their time" on border legislation until after the November midterms.

Trump weighed in on Twitter as Republicans who control both chambers of Congress have been wrestling with divisions over the immigration issue.

Faced with pressure from Republican moderates to allow a vote on legislation to help young undocumented immigrants known as "Dreamers,"  House Speaker Paul Ryan has offered a bill aimed at bridging the differences between moderate and conservative lawmakers. The legislation would toughen enforcement laws and provide funding for Trump's proposed wall on the southern border. It would also aim to help young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and halt separations of families detained at the border together.

But a vote on the bill that was scheduled for this week had to be postponed until next week because Republican lawmakers could not agree on the details. A more hardline piece of legislation failed to pass Thursday.

Trump has sent mixed signals on the bill but on Friday morning he tweeted:  "Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November."

"Dems are just playing games, have no intention of doing anything to solves this decades old problem. We can pass great legislation after the Red Wave!" Trump wrote.

When Trump met with House Republicans this week, he didn't give a rousing endorsement of the bill. Still, he indicated that he'd sign the measure if they were able to pass it.

The tweet was “a bit of a surprise after the conference meeting I must confess, I still think it’s something that Americans want us to do," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., told reporters Friday.

Trump's tweet could further dampen any chances the bill has of winning over reluctant conservatives who are looking for cover for the base from the president.

But then again, the bill was really just being brought up to fulfill a promise to moderate Republicans who abandoned a bipartisan effort to go around GOP leadership and force a vote, Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry of North Carolina said.

Friday morning at the Capitol a reporter asked McHenry why Republicans didn't follow the president's advice and just stop wasting their time? “That’s a very good question, votes were pledged in order to turn off the discharge petition," McHenry responded.

Before Republicans postponed a vote on the bill on Thursday, the president blamed Senate Democrats for its weak prospects of becoming law.

"What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills when you need 9 votes by Democrats in the Senate, and the Dems are only looking to Obstruct (which they feel is good for them in the Mid-Terms)," he tweeted. "Republicans must get rid of the stupid Filibuster Rule-it is killing you!"

Trump, who campaigned for the presidency by promising to build a border wall, has emphasizing his call for stricter immigration laws as a theme for the midterms.

"Elect more Republicans in November and we will pass the finest, fairest and most comprehensive Immigration Bills anywhere in the world," he tweeted Thursday. "Right now we have the dumbest and the worst. Dems are doing nothing but Obstructing. Remember their motto, RESIST! Ours is PRODUCE!"

WPXI