As of Saturday morning, news reports had it that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were preparing to begin a raid of epic proportions on Sunday – the largest immigration enforcement operation of Trump’s presidency – that would target 10 major cities across the United States. But President Trump abruptly changed course this weekend, giving Congress two weeks to come up with a legislative package that would turn the corner on the ongoing crisis at the border.
“At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!” Trump tweeted on Saturday afternoon.
Reportedly, Trump made the decision after a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during which she pleaded with him to call of the deportation raids.
The president has reason for confidence. He’s coming off an intensely-successful standoff with the Mexican government. In the weeks after signing an agreement with Mexico that allowed our southern neighbors to avoid tariffs, illegal border crossings have slowed for the first time in more than a year. Mexico has put their national guard to work at their own southern border, arresting migrants before they can make it to the U.S. If Trump can leverage similar pressure against Democrats, we could finally see immigration progress on Capitol Hill.
2020 Democrats, who were undoubtedly salivating at the prospect of campaigning ferociously against an “inhumane” enforcement of U.S. law, found a way to bash the president for giving illegal families more time.
“This was another bait-and-switch,” said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, currently running on 0% voter support. “He creates a crisis, and then he says, ’Oh, let’s solve this crisis! Make a deal with me!’ It was ludicrous that he would ever be able to remove 11 million people from the United States of America. But the painful, cruel joke was that a lot of people felt a lot of fear over it.”
Damn, people who broke the law were afraid they might face the consequences? What a terrible person, that evil Mr. Trump!
Trump has given congressional Democrats more than enough time to come to the table. There is legislation, right now, in the works in both the Senate and the House. Unfortunately, Democrats have poisoned their version of the bill with so much nonsense that it fails to represent a good faith attempt.
They don’t want to fix this problem, of course. They want to run on the problem in 2020. Trump’s only choice is to give them a deadline, after which there will be significant, real-world consequences for their inaction. Right now, that deadline stands at two weeks. Hopefully, Trump will stick to it.
Comments are closed.