Flake takes on President Donald Trump over immigration comments
Nov 2, 2017, 4:01 AM
Sen. Jeff Flake, left, and President Donald Trump. (AP photos)
(AP photos)
PHOENIX — Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) took on Donald Trump over the president’s comments that advocated for comprehensive immigration reform on Wednesday.
In a series of tweets, Trump called on the Department of Homeland Security to “step up our already Extreme Vetting Program” in an effort to curb the immigrants who are entering the country.
Trump’s latest push for immigration reform came shortly after 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov allegedly killed at least eight people and injured 12 more after driving a rented Home Depot truck down a New York City bike path on Tuesday.
Saipov is a Uzbekistan native who entered the country in 2010 through a diversity visa program, a 20-year-old program that offers a limited number of visas to people from parts of the world with few immigrants in the U.S.
Flake said he, along with fellow Arizona Sen. John McCain, advocated to end the program three years ago as part of the Gang of Eight bill, a broad bipartisan bill aimed at overhauling U.S. immigration laws. The bill passed in the Senate, but not the House.
One of Trump’s tweets said he is “fighting hard for Merit Based immigration” in an effort to get “MUCH tougher (and smarter)” in the vetting process.
Flake tweeted in response to Trump’s criticisms that the Gang of Eight bill would have “ended the Visa Lottery Program AND increased merit based visas.”
In fact, had the Senate Gang of 8 bill passed the House, it would have ended the Visa Lottery Program AND increased merit based visas. https://t.co/o3qJHHAv1C
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) November 1, 2017
Actually, the Gang of 8, including @SenSchumer, did away with the Diversity Visa Program as part of broader reforms. I know, I was there https://t.co/QQFJzPyRzC
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) November 1, 2017
In a statement on Wednesday, McCain also pushed Congress to “come together to devise and pass legislation to fully and humanely reform our broken immigration system and secure the homeland.
“I agree with criticisms of the Diversity Visa Program, which is why I joined my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in 2013 to pass comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate that would have eliminated this program and replaced it with a merit-based system.”
