White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly told Democratic lawmakers Wednesday that the US will never build a wall along the entire southern border and that Mexico won’t pay for what we do erect — refuting one of President Trump’s top campaign promises.
The former Marine general also described some of the president’s other campaign promises about immigration “uninformed,” The Washington Post reported.
Kelly went to Capitol Hill and met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) to talk about immigration reform.
Kelly assured the lawmakers that Trump supports permanent legal protections for Dreamers, but the meeting concluded without any apparent progress on the issue.
He also drew a distinction between campaign rhetoric and running the country, the paper reported.
“One thing is to campaign, another thing is to govern. It’s really hard,” he said.
Instead of “a concrete wall from sea to shining sea,” Kelly said that “a physical barrier in many places” is what the administration wants.
“Concrete wall is not a realistic solution in many places,” Kelly said, echoing comments from Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway last week that the president also realized a wall would be impractical in mountainous regions or where rivers separate the countries.