By Dustin Rowles | Politics | January 10, 2018 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | January 10, 2018 |
What exactly is going on with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program? Well, let’s bring you up to speed:
Yesterday, in an effort to show that he’s a master of his own mental facilities, Donald Trump opened up a bi-partisan negotiation with Congress over DACA to the press. Over the course of that meeting, Senator Feinstein asked Trump if he’d be amenable to a “clean DACA” bill, and Trump says that he would, because Donald Trump doesn’t know what a “clean DACA bill” means because he is not a master of his own mental facilities:
Feinstein is killin' it today.
— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) January 9, 2018
Here she is, pushing Trump into a corner on a clean DACA bill.
Watch as Trump, amazingly, takes the bait.
He then has to be reminded what his position actually *is* by @GOPLeader McCarthy.pic.twitter.com/5wpEqbOl8m
Republican Kevin McCarthy had to step in there, and explain to the President, essentially, that what Feinstein was offering was not actually what Trump wants. Trump wants money for The Wall and other immigration reforms before he agrees to the DACA bill, because if the Democrats get DACA, they’re very unlikely to actually compromise with Republicans on their demands.
Master negotiator, that Trump. “Yes, I’ll let you have exactly what you want, and after I’ve given away all my leverage, I will come back to you and negotiate a deal on comprehensive immigration reform.”
Anyway, Twitter Trump contradicted public Trump a few hours later:
As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018
To his credit, Trump did say that he’d be willing to take the heat for whatever decision Congress came up with. The overwhelming majority of Americans want to keep DACA, and even a large majority of Republicans want to keep it, so there’s not a lot of heat to take, is there?
Au contraire: The Anne Coulter sect wants to deport everyone who isn’t 100 percent Caucasian, except JJ from Good Times:
That’s it. If #Trump rolls over on #DACA, he loses my vote. That is a promise. https://t.co/jQj6SxMmwe
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 10, 2018
Nothing Michael Wolff could say about @realDonaldTrump has hurt him as much as the DACA lovefest right now.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 9, 2018
Dems always act like Dreamers are some of America’s best people.
— Brandon (@brandongroeny) January 10, 2018
Actually, they are freeloading, privileged, entitled, free college receiving people who take advantage of our country.
Sorry, but that’s the truth.#DACA
But, you know: Bannon is gone now, and Trump is leaning Establishment, because those are the only friends he has anymore.
But then: Twist! Maybe it doesn’t matter, because the court system has apparently reinstituted DACA. Why? Because Trump likes the program! Here’s what U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco wrote in his opinion blocking the DACA phase out:
“We seem to be in the unusual position wherein the ultimate authority over the agency, the Chief Executive, publicly favors the very program the agency has ended. For the reasons DACA was instituted and for the reasons tweeted by President Trump, this order finds that the public interest will be served by DACA’s continuation.”
What tweet was that, exactly?
Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017
You see, Trump, you dumb son of a bitch? Your tweets will come back and haunt your ass.
The court also said that it was wrong of Homeland Security to rescind DACA in the first place on the basis that it was illegal, because it is not the job of Homeland Security to determine legality. That’s the job of the court system, and this court disagrees with that determination.
So, DACA is saved, right? Well, not exactly. That’s a district court, and the government will obviously appeal. But the Court may have bought DACA recipients some more time. In the meantime, Trump and Congress really do need to come up with a legislative fix, and despite their negotiation yesterday, and Trump’s apparent support for a Clean DACA bill, he’s still going to want money for the wall and an agreement to end the VISA lottery program before he agrees to revive DACA.
Probably.
Trump changes his mind based on the last person he spoke to, so maybe if Democrats and a few Republicans just passed a clean DACA bill and brought it to Trump’s desk with a video camera and some flowers, he’d sign the damn thing.