Introduction & Purpose: Reading comprehension requires the coordination of foundational reading and inferential skills. This study addresses two limitations in the literature by examining 1) how inferencing and foundational skills in morphological awareness, word reading, vocabulary, and prior knowledge impact reading comprehension in adult literacy learners and 2) how these relations vary across native and non-native English-speaking readers. Method: This secondary data analysis of the Center for the Study of Adult Literacy (CSAL) dataset included 544 participants from Adults Basic Education (ABE) programs in the U.S. and Canada. The study used multi-group path modeling with inferencing serving a mediating role to examine how language status (native, non-native) impacts the direct and indirect relations between foundational components and reading comprehension. Results: Results confirmed full structural invariance across language status: the absolute pathways connecting foundational components, inferencing, and reading comprehension operated equivalently across native and non-native speakers. For both groups, foundational components directly predicted reading comprehension, while inferencing served as a critical bridging hub for morphological awareness, word reading, and prior knowledge. Furthermore, standardized estimates of the pathways revealed divergent relative reliance. Non-native speakers demonstrated a compensatory reliance on general knowledge to support inferencing, yielding significantly less unexplained residual variance compared to their native counterparts. Conclusion & Implications: Theoretically, the study sheds light on how structural theories of reading might account for language status. Finally, findings may have practical implications for ABE instruction.