Trump Lays Out Demands on DACA

A piece of good news this morning (if you are a conservative who cares about immigration enforcement). It originally appeared that Donald Trump and the GOP Congress were going to simply roll over on Democrat demands in regards to DACA. On September 12th, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer gave a joint statement indicating such.

The Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, said in a joint statement that they had a “very productive” dinner meeting with the president at the White House that focused on the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. “We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides,” they said.

To be fair, Trump denied the report the very next day.

No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

It appears he’s now sticking to that assertion, most likely with the guidance of immigration hawk Stephen Miller. The details of the new demands, as reported by ABC News, can only be described as hard line.

President Donald Trump has told congressional leaders that his hard-line immigration priorities must be enacted in exchange for extending protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, many of whom were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Trump’s list of demands included overhauling the country’s green-card system, a crackdown on unaccompanied minors entering the country, and building his promised wall along the southern border…

…”These findings outline reforms that must be included as part of any legislation addressing the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients,” he wrote, adding that: “Without these reforms, illegal immigration and chain migration, which severely and unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers, will continue without end.”

While the wall will get the most press, restrictions on chain migration and green card reform are the most welcome additions to the debate here.

As to why Trump has seemingly solidified his stance on this? It could be as simple as Pelosi and Schumer overplaying their hand with their continued criticism of him. Trump is very much into give and take among enemies. There was no give by Democrats, either legislatively or in their heated rhetoric, in response to Trump being willing to come to the table.

Minds are naturally being lost over this latest revelation.

“The Administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans” they wrote. “The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the President was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so.”

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the president’s “draconian and anti-immigrant principles” threatened to jeopardize “the bi-partisan, bi-cameral progress that has been made to pass a legislative solution that will protect nearly 800,000 Dreamers.”

“It is immoral for the President to use the lives of these young people as bargaining chips in his quest to impose his cruel, anti-immigrant and un-American agenda on our nation,” she added in a statement.

I’m still trying to figure out why “Dreamers” care so much if we go ahead and secure the border after legalizing them. Why is it even any of their concern? You’d think they’d be grateful and want to respect our laws after such an act of kindness from the American people. If you come to my house during a storm and I let you in, what logic is there in you now vehemently demanding I leave my house open after the storm for anyone else that wants to waltz in? Yet, that’s the majority position of the “Dreamer” contingent.

This is a good development in so far as it at least puts pressure on the Congress to not give the farm away on a DACA bill. The question is whether that pressure will be enough. There’s a large contingent of Republican Congressional members who desperately want to pass some form of amnesty. These include the John McCain and Lindsey Graham wing of the Senate.

The Democratic Party plan on this is simple. They are hoping that chain migration turns any bill into a mass amnesty that can not be stopped. Republicans must hold firm and ensure that isn’t possible. Citizenship shouldn’t even be on the table. Permanent residency with no allowances for chain migration along with large increases in border security should be the only thing acceptable to the GOP. Anything less would be a loss.

Will the Republicans have the guts to hold such a staunch (but common sense) line? That’s an open question. Regardless, Trump does deserve some credit for doing the politically unpopular thing in rescinding DACA initially and now appearing to hold the line on sweeping enforcement reforms as part of any deal. There was a lot of talk after the debt ceiling deal that Trump would now strike grand bargains favoring liberals on healthcare and immigration. Thankfully, that hasn’t materialized.

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