In this June 21, 2018, photo, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., arrives for a news conference at the Capitol in Washington. House Republicans say they will make another run at immigration legislation... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this June 21, 2018, photo, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., arrives for a news conference at the Capitol in Washington. House Republicans say they will make another run at immigration legislation... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican apprehension over President Donald Trump's next tweet and fear of riling conservative voters are undermining GOP leaders' election-year struggle to shove an immigration bill through the House this week, leaving their prospects dubious. 
 
 Party leaders are trying to finally secure the votes they need for their wide-ranging bill with tweaks they hope will goose support from the GOP's dueling conservative and moderate wings. But more importantly, wavering Republicans want Trump to provide political cover for immigration legislation that's despised by hard-right voters. His recent statements on their bill and history of abruptly flip-flopping on past health care and spending measures have not been reassuring. 
 
 Last Tuesday, he privately told House Republicans that he backed their legislation "1,000 percent" and would protect them during their campaigns, lawmakers said. By Friday, he was tweeting that "Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration" and wait until after the November elections, when he said the GOP would approve tougher legislation because it will gain strength in Congress. That proposition is dicey at best. 
 
 "I think that the best way to pass legislation is to consistently support a position and help move it forward," Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, a senior House Republican. Asked if Trump was doing that, Walden pivoted toward a door and said, "I'll leave it at that." 
 
 Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that he talked to the White House on Saturday and "they say the president is still 100 percent behind us." 
 
 The bill would make citizenship a possibility for "Dreamer" immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. when young. It would also finance Trump's aspirational $25 billion wall with Mexico and curb government agencies from wrenching migrant children from detained parents. 
 
 The measure is the product of weeks of bargaining between party conservatives and moderates. Even so, the two GOP factions have been unable to resolve their final differences and vote-counters have yet to round up a majority. Republicans are getting no help from Democrats, who uniformly oppose the legislation. 
 
 The GOP divisions come at a bad time for the party: Elections are approaching and immigration has riveted public attention for months. Republicans who are battling to retain House control have hoped to focus this fall's campaigns on the economy and tax cuts. 
 
 Instead, Republican blockades against ending deportations of young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children were major news earlier this year. In recent days, the focus has shifted to the Trump administration's wrenching of migrant children from their parents. 
 
 Neither of those have been good looks for Republicans from swing districts with large numbers of moderate voters — the very incumbents who must be re-elected for the GOP to retain House control. 
 
 Lawmakers said leaders wanted to round up GOP votes by adding provisions requiring companies to verify workers' citizenship, which conservatives like. They would also ease restrictions on seasonal migrant workers, a priority for farm-district, moderate Republicans. 
 
 Until now, party leaders have hesitated to include those items because they could end up costing votes, not gaining them. Moderate Republicans don't like the citizenship verification requirement and some conservatives don't like helping immigrants stay in the U.S. 
 
 Another problem is the two additional provisions don't address the major reason for GOP defections: Conservatives say helping Dreamers stay in the U.S. is handing amnesty to lawbreakers. 
 
 "I'm a 'no,'" said Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. He said he couldn't defend helping the Dreamers "to people waiting in line the right way" to immigrate to the U.S. 
 
 The House defeated a more conservative immigration alternative last week. 
 
 GOP leaders said the House will vote on its compromise immigration bill despite Trump's flashing red light on the subject. 
 
 Top Republicans have wanted to hold the votes, win or lose, partly to defuse an effort by GOP moderates to force the chamber to vote on liberal-leaning bills helping immigrants win citizenship. Those measures could pass the House backed by Democrats and a few Republicans, an outcome that would enrage conservative voters. 
 
 In addition, some Republicans are eager for roll calls to show voters back home that they've tried to address the issue. 
 
 "I think it's important that the House be able to show we can take the action," said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. 
 
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 AP writer Ken Thomas contributed. ||||| ?We need people who will help to Make America Great Again!," President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Trump: 'We cannot allow all of these people to invade our country' 
 
 President Donald Trump on Sunday continued escalating his rhetoric about migrants, tweeting, “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our country.” 
 
 The president wrote on Twitter: "When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came,” presumably confusing “bring” with “send” in that instance. “Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.” 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Trump and allies have increasingly used dehumanizing terms to describe immigration, including language like "infest." At times, his harsh words have been reserved for MS-13 gang members, but in other instances he is not specific as to what he is talking about and conflates migrants coming across the border with the brutal gang. 
 
 “Immigration must be based on merit — we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!” he said in his next tweet. 
 
 The president and his administration have been under intense criticism since the new "zero tolerance" immigration policy led to the separation of families apprehended after crossing the border illegally. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that he said would end the practice, but former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said Sunday that order will likely be overturned by the courts. 
 
 As he did last week, Trump complained about the role of judges and the court system in the U.S. immigration process. Since illegal immigration is a federal crime — a misdemeanor for a first instance of illegal border crossing and a felony for someone who has been deported who illegally enters the United States again — the process is handled at the federal level by immigration judges. 
 
 The U.S. has an expedited removal process that allows for relatively fast deportation proceedings for people who enter the country illegally, but only if they are citizens of Canada or Mexico. Trump wants to change that. 
 
 But the president seemed to call Sunday for denying due process to people apprehended after crossing the border illegally, and he did not seem to draw a distinction for people who arrive at ports of entry seeking asylum, as are many of those now coming from violence-plagued Central American nations. America is party to treaties that govern the treatment of asylum seekers and non-asylum seekers. 
 
 An American Civil Liberties Union official blasted Trump's statement, saying the president was suggesting an "illegal and unconstitutional" policy change. 
 
 "Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally," said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. 
 
 Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
– After a week of outrage over child separation at the southern border and a subsequent executive order that claims to stop it, President Trump is again using pointed rhetoric to describe the immigration crisis in America. In a Sunday string of tweets, Trump blasted Democrats, telling them to "fix the laws" while praising his own administration for being better than those of Bush or Obama at handing the complex issue. In that same tweet, Trump connected illegal immigration with crime on this side of the border. "Cannot accept all of the people trying to break into our Country. Strong Borders, No Crime!" he tweeted. As Politico notes, Trump and his supporters have frequently used controversial language when describing undocumented immigrants, specifically when invoking the MS-13 gang. The president did not mention the street gang in Sunday's tweets. However, Trump did say that "We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country ... we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came." As of May, federal immigration courts had a backlog of over 700,000 cases and some courts were scheduling hearings after 2021. Per AP, Republican apprehension over Trump's habit of sending off fiery and unpredictable tweets about the hot button issue and their fear of riling conservative voters are undermining GOP leaders' election-year struggle to shove an immigration bill through the House this week. Party leaders are trying to finally secure the votes they need for their wide-ranging bill with tweaks they hope will goose support from the GOP's dueling conservative and moderate wings.