Trump looks to Dreamers for an immigration deal

Afridi786 · 02:50 PM

Quote:

The fate of Dreamers is about to be dropped into a combustible election year — again.

Activists, lawmakers and White House officials are bracing for the Supreme Court in the coming weeks to allow the Trump administration to end the program that protects immigrants who came to the country illegally as children, known as Dreamers.

But no side expects President Donald Trump will immediately end the program if the ruling goes in his favor. Instead, Trump is expected to slowly wind down the program and use that as leverage to try and strike a broader immigration deal with Democrats this summer, according to six people familiar with the situation. But Democrats, already suspicious of any deals with Trump, want to wait to see if their party wins back the White House and Senate in November.

That means the issue is poised to break through in an election year that has been dominated by the coronavirus pandemic and, now, protests over police brutality. Trump’s team plans to blame Democrats for not being willing to negotiate, hoping the message will help the president appeal to Hispanic voters. Democrats, and their likely presidential nominee Joe Biden, are running on a pledge to permanently enshrine the program that has protected Dreamers, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

“What happens has significant risks and opportunities for both parties,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group. “Who can blame the other side for deporting DACA recipients is what it comes down to.”

Already, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has floated including DACA as part of a broader immigration package after the Supreme Court ruling, according to two of the people familiar with the conversations. And some Senate offices, both Republicans and Democrats, have started talking about what they could ask for in exchange for legal status for Dreamers, according to those familiar with the conversations.

Yet finding any congressional solution on DACA will be nearly impossible for a divided Congress in an election year. Additionally, lawmakers are focused on responding to the coronavirus pandemic that has already killed more than 100,000 in the U.S. and ravaged the economy, as well as racial inequality after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man killed in police custody.

Still, several Trump aides are pushing the president to offer Democrats a deal. If they refuse, the aides believe they can put the onus on Democrats for being unwilling to come to the table. They think the move could help Trump appeal to Hispanics in the election, perhaps slicing into the advantage Democrats have with the group. It’s an attempt to replicate an approach previously used by former George W. Bush aide Karl Rove, who is advising Trump’s campaign. Bush — who aggressively courted Hispanics by breaking into Spanish, visiting minority neighborhoods and touting his “compassionate conservative” philosophy — won 35 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2000 and 43 percent in 2004, the highest for a Republican nominee since exit polling began in 1972.

The pending Supreme Court case is the end result of Trump’s attempt in 2017 to shut down the DACA program, which he argues President Barack Obama illegally created in 2012. Trump was taken to court over the issue and the Supreme Court, sometime in the next few weeks, will decide whether Trump has the authority to undo DACA. During oral arguments in November, the court’s conservative majority appeared to side with the Trump administration on shuttering the program.

Trump made cracking down on immigration the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, promising to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico, deport millions of migrants who arrived in the country illegally and end DACA, which provides renewable work permits to Dreamers.

But Trump’s rhetoric on the issue has wavered as president. When he moved to end the program, Trump offered a six-month wind-down period designed to give Congress time to pass legislation to make the program permanent. Trump spoke of his “great heart” and “great love” for the Dreamers. But just last November, he also lashed out at Dreamers on Twitter: “Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from ‘angels. Some are very tough, hardened criminals.” (Immigrants with criminal records aren’t eligible for DACA and can be removed from the program if they commit crimes.)

About 650,000 immigrants are DACA recipients, according to federal data from December. The number has dipped with some failing to renew or securing legal protections in other ways.

Biden, who was vice president when DACA was created, has vowed to reinstate the program and allow Dreamers to receive federal student aid, calling Trump’s decision to end the program “cruel and counterproductive.”

“The next president must institute effective immigration reform while restoring regional policies grounded in respect,” Biden wrote in an op-ed last year. “That starts by recognizing that DREAMers are Americans, and Congress needs to make it official. The millions of undocumented people in the United States can only be brought out of the shadows through fair treatment, not ugly threats.”

A senior administration official disputes that Kushner told senators that DACA would be part of a larger immigration package, saying the president is considering various options as he waits for the Supreme Court decision. No decision has been made and Trump, who is down in the polls, could still decide he will try for a deal in a second term or end the program immediately, taking a political risk with Hispanic and moderate voters to appease his conservative base.

Kushner has been talking to lawmakers for months about a 600-page bill that would grant permanent status to more high-skilled, well-educated immigrants, while reducing the number of immigrants who enter the U.S. based on family ties. The bill, which has not won much support, even from Republicans, didn’t originally include DACA but Kushner has suggested to Senate offices that it could be added.

At a meeting last year, María Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of the Latino political organization Voto Latino, urged Kushner and Kirstjen Nielsen, then the Department of Homeland Security secretary, to include DACA in any immigration plan pushed by the White House, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

After Democrats took control of the House in 2019, the lower chamber did pass a bill, largely along party lines, to provide legal status and eventual citizenship to 2.3 million Dreamers, including DACA recipients. The Senate, which needs 60 votes to pass legislation, has ignored it.

“If the Supreme Court rules as expected, the Trump administration must immediately begin a six-month wind-down as they originally intended,” said RJ Hauman, government relations director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports immigration restrictions. “Keep in mind though, even if that happens, Democrats and activists will still be shouting from the rooftops that it’s an ‘emergency’ that must be addressed by Congress. Hopefully the White House doesn’t take the bait.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last week that she would not be willing to accept certain immigration policies just to strike a DACA deal with Trump.

"Our advocates for comprehensive immigration reform do not want us yielding on any of those points. We should have comprehensive immigration reform. We will move in that direction," she said. "But we are not going to endanger families or have increased surveillance in our country."

Instead, Democrats vowed at a news conference — held to mark the one-year anniversary of the House Dreamers bill — to push the Senate to act.

"We are going to keep pressuring and pressuring and pressuring because the public is on our side," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Polls have long shown the majority of Americans support letting DACA recipients stay in the country. Business executives, donors and Republican leaders all have urged Trump to show compassion for the Dreamers.

Even Mark Krikorian, who serves as executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies and favors broad immigration restrictions, said he could support protections if it came with “offsetting measures” and oversight.

For years, Trump has offered legislative proposals that would give Dreamers permanent legal protections in exchange for some of his hardline immigration priorities, including cuts to legal immigration and border wall funding. But the offers have gone nowhere.

He has faced opposition from both sides of the issue — immigration hawks accuse him of going against his own campaign promise and immigrant advocates claim he is not sincere in his efforts to provide permanent legal status for Dreamers.

“The administration plays with people’s lives for political expediency,” Kumar said. “They see DACA as currency.”

His proposal to protect Dreamers in exchange for $25 billion for a southern border wall died in Congress. But he continues to mention the possibility of a deal, most recently when he met with senators, including Lindsey Graham, who has long pushed for a massive rewrite of the nation’s immigration laws, at the White House in March.

At that meeting, Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a Trump ally, presented the president with a series of DACA proposals, including those that would protect all immigrants eligible for the program. Trump told Graham and other Republican senators that he wanted to wait until after the Supreme Court ruling to try to make a deal.

It’s a message Trump signaled on Twitter in November, as the Supreme Court held oral arguments on the case: “If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...-ruling-288472

Same story, different year yo.

Demise · 03:18 PM

Want my guess? Bunker cuck got a sneak peak of a decision unfavorable to himself which is why he's suddenly willing to deal. The fact that COVID wrecked the economy and people are rioting for one reason or another (lets not pretend that it's only about George Floyd, his death was just the last straw at an opportune moment when a large chunk of the population is out of work) isn't doing him any favors whatsoever either.

Sessions isn't at the helm of the DOJ either and Barr couldn't give a less of a shit about DACA so there won't be some day 1 "We are rolling DACA back without violating the APA this time" decision coming from either him or Chad Wolf.

justjohnjustice1988 · 06-07-2020, 04:13 PM

Watch Trump eat the Dems lunch.

Trump2020

Fight social "justice" commies!

Manhattan2017 · 06-07-2020, 04:13 PM

Trump is probably grappling with the reality of a loss this Nov given how the country is under fire on MULTIPLE fronts (covid, economic, protests) and if this ruling goes in HIS favor, lord knows the minorities will be further activated and the ruling might end up being the nail in this reelection coffin.

Let's hope that things turn out well for us DACA dreamers.

Got_Daca · 06-07-2020, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justjohnjustice1988

Watch Trump eat the Dems lunch.

Trump2020

Fight social "justice" commies!

Yep

Dems are done

Suburban yuppies saw glimpse of Blue future. It is all riots and fire

350 electoral college for Trump

justjohnjustice1988 · 06-07-2020, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Got_Daca

Yep

Dems are done

Suburban yuppies saw glimpse of Blue future. It is all riots and fire

350 electoral college for Trump

For years and years leftist academia has been telling"minorities" that the white straight man is the enemy. When there's no enemy.

Capitalism is actually one of the best systems to fight wealth "inequality" because businesses don't care what you look like, they just want your money.

I do see Biden winning the popular vote and Trump winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina and Florida.

The Left is ONLY doing all this social justice crap to scare black voters into thinking they are under siege.

They want to abolish the police in Minneapolis. I mean, wtf!

They turned George Floyd's murder as a race war opportunity instead of meaningful police reform.

Middle America doesn't care about woke yuppies that never had had a job or think Capitalism is the enemy.

Most people protesting weren't gonna support Trump or Republicans anyway.

I pray America wakes up and stops the Leftist movement and take over of the Democratic Party.

It's like, one black man dies and the whole world burns. How many Latinos die at the hands of police? It's all so hypocritical and so extreme I would have never imagined this would happen in the richest most free country in the world.

Scary....very scary!

DACAgogue · 06-07-2020, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justjohnjustice1988

For years and years leftist academia has been telling"minorities" that the white straight man is the enemy. When there's no enemy.

Capitalism is actually one of the best systems to fight wealth "inequality" because businesses don't care what you look like, they just want your money.

I do see Biden winning the popular vote and Trump winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina and Florida.

The Left is ONLY doing all this social justice crap to scare black voters into thinking they are under siege.

They want to abolish the police in Minneapolis. I mean, wtf!

They turned George Floyd's murder as a race war opportunity instead of meaningful police reform.

Middle America doesn't care about woke yuppies that never had had a job or think Capitalism is the enemy.

Most people protesting weren't gonna support Trump or Republicans anyway.

I pray America wakes up and stops the Leftist movement and take over of the Democratic Party.

It's like, one black man dies and the whole world burns. How many Latinos die at the hands of police? It's all so hypocritical and so extreme I would have never imagined this would happen in the richest most free country in the world.

Scary....very scary!

You get an award for being the biggest dumb fuck in the history of dumb fucks. Where can I send your certificate, you blind brain dead piece of fuck.

DACA-IR-DA · 06-07-2020, 07:24 PM

I think DACA ends and Dream Act passes before the elections.

DogJuiceMan · 06-07-2020, 07:39 PM

Looks like its greencards for Thanksgiving.

They even have Karl Rove spearheading the re-election campaign, oh shit mofos it just got hot. Biden should've picked up Karl Rove.

Pianoswithoutfaith · 06-07-2020, 07:43 PM

Just a daily reminder that justjohn has been riding Nancy’s dick all day everyday last year

They need you!

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Trump looks to Dreamers for an immigration deal