Lawler pans Senate border bill, Trump trials: What he said at sit-down lohud interview

WEST HARRISON — Count Rep. Mike Lawler as a "no" vote if the bipartisan Senate plan for immigration reform and border security ever makes it to his side of the Capitol.

The Senate was expected to take up the bill again this week, reviving a proposal that once appeared to have a chance of bridging one of Washington's deepest divides. It emerged to fanfare in February after months of two-party talks, but then collapsed after former President Donald Trump panned it and Republican senators balked.

Lawler, in an interview at The Journal News office on Tuesday, criticized it as well, arguing it would codify a policy he said no Republicans support, and which they call "catch and release." It allows undocumented immigrants to enter and stay in the U.S while their asylum applications play out in court, rather than keep them in detention centers for a process that takes years.

The first-term Republican from Rockland County recently scored high marks for bipartisan work in his first year in Congress. But on this topic, he stood squarely with his party against the Senate bill and in favor the House Republicans' own border bill, which has no Democratic support and is shunned by their side as overly harsh.

Lawler blamed President Joe Biden and his administration for the underlying problem, saying they stoked a surge in border crossing by reversing Trump's executive orders.

"That was a policy choice," he said. "It was a policy choice to enact 'catch and release.' So while people focus in on the Senate bipartisan bill as if that was going to somehow solve the fundamental issue, you have to look back to why we're even dealing with this issue in the first place."

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Trump deportation threat "not realistic"

Lawler sees little prospect for Trump's threat to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants — using the National Guard or military if necessary — if he beats Biden in November's election and returns to office.

"That's not realistic," he said. "You're not going to round up 20 million people and kick them out."

He pointed to the softer approach spelled out in a bipartisan bill he helped introduce last year. That proposal, known as the Dignity Act, would create pathways to legalization or citizenship for many of the millions of immigrants already living and working in the U.S. without authorization. Deportation, he said, would be reserved for only those who commit crimes.

Trump trials "destructive" to country

Lawler made no endorsement during this year's presidential primaries and has been quieter than many of his colleagues about Trump's third White House run. And he says he has no plans to join a rotating cast of House Republicans to stand in solidarity with Trump at a Manhattan courthouse, where the former president's being tried for falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to a porn star.

But in Tuesday's interview, Lawler voiced similar misgivings about the four criminal cases against Trump, arguing they will widen the nation's partisan divide and stoke distrust in the criminal justice system among the former president's supporters.

"I think these types of cases that have been brought, in some respects, are destructive to the county, and are going to worsen the divide, regardless of the outcome," he said. "And so from that vantage point I think it's extremely unfortunate for the country."

Another run at the SALT cap

Lawler was part of a bipartisan push to raise the $10,000 limit his party set in 2017 on a tax deduction known as SALT — for state and local taxes — that used to cut federal tax bills every year for people in high-tax states like New York. A proposal to double that limit for married couples fizzled in February when it failed to clear a procedural vote.

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In Tuesday's interview, Lawler scolded Democrats for opposing that motion, which they did because Republicans paired it with a resolution denouncing the Biden administration's energy policies. And he said he plans to renew his opposition to the SALT cap next year — if reelected — when it expires and Congress negotiates a new tax bill.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Lawler pans border bill, Trump trials: What he said in lohud interview