Wall! Deport the illegals! America first! MAGA!!
Or maybe not.
During a bipartisan meeting on Tuesday, to discuss the matter of “Dreamers” – those brought to the U.S. as children, illegally – President Trump mentioned extra money for the wall and broached the subject of stopping chain immigration. The meeting was to determine short-term goals for the future, and it was a doozy.
So what about those illegals already here?
But in backing a broader immigration measure, Mr. Trump was giving a rare public glimpse of an impulse he has expressed privately to advisers and lawmakers — the desire to preside over a more far-reaching solution to the status of the 11 million undocumented immigrants already living and working in the United States. Such action has the potential to alienate the hard-line immigration activists who powered his political rise and helped him win the presidency, many of whom have described it as amnesty for lawbreakers.
“If you want to take it that further step, I’ll take the heat,” Mr. Trump told Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who floated the idea during the meeting in the White House Cabinet Room on Tuesday. “You are not that far away from comprehensive immigration reform.”
Ah… well, that would explain Senator Lindsey Grahamnesty’s recent sucking up to Trump. And Trump is now saying his hardliners will flow as he flows. If he’s for deporting all illegals, they’re for deporting all illegals. If he suddenly flips and wants to give them all citizenship, then his true supporters are all for that, as well.
The dizzying dilemma of having no ideological principles to stand on.
Trump’s efforts were televised, because he loves having the camera on him. I haven’t seen any of his loyalists screaming, yet. They likely will not. He was warned, however, that his goals may be too ambitious.
Mr. Trump said he supported a two-phase approach that would first codify the protections created under DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that he has moved to end by March, and then address other undocumented immigrants. Democrats have insisted that the program, which grants reprieves from deportation and work permits to immigrants brought to the United States without authorization as children, be part of any longer-term agreement to fund the government beyond Jan. 19, when current funding expires.
That’s exactly what Trump’s “America first” base want to hear, right?
Graham is Trump’s point man on this, apparently, and Trump is quite comfortable with his new home in the swamp. Senator Graham encouraged him by telling him he had a real opportunity here to close the deal.
The president wasn’t a total pushover, regarding amnesty for illegals. He made some conditions.
But the president said he would insist on strict new immigration limits as part of any such measure, calling it a “bill of love.” Laying out conditions that many Democrats view as nonstarters, Mr. Trump said the legislation must fortify the nation’s borders; end “chain migration,” a term used by immigration critics to refer to immigrants’ ability to bring members of their extended family to the United States after gaining their own legal status; and cancel the diversity visa lottery program.
“I really do believe Democrat and Republican, the people sitting in this room, really want to get something done,” Mr. Trump said.
Bill of love?
So… amnesty it is.
For those that want to break it all down, Trump spoke directly to his loyalists, speaking in language that only they can understand:
TRUMP, word for word: "I think a clean DACA bill, to me, is a DACA bill, but we take care of the 800,000 people … but I think, to me, a clean bill is a bill of DACA, we take care of them, and we also take care of security."
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) January 9, 2018
MAGA, ya’ll.
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