Deporter-in-chief Trump: Give Me a Border Wall or Ill Deport the Dreamers:

December 29, 2017 11:00 am
Trump: Give Me a Border Wall or I’ll Deport the Dreamers
By
Eric Levitz @EricLevitz


Deporter-in-chief. Photo: Chris Kleponis/Pool/Getty Images

Donald Trump just made Democrats an offer they can’t accept. In a Friday-morning tweet, the president issued an ultimatum: Build me a border wall — and make it harder for legal immigrants to bring their foreign family members into the United States (a.k.a. “chain migration”) — or the Dreamers get it.

On Thursday, Breitbart reported that the GOP’s congressional leadership presented a nearly identical deal to House conservatives:

At least two House GOP members told Breitbart News that leadership — including Ryan — has been presenting the DACA deal to membership as something along these lines: In exchange for legislatively granting amnesty to recipients of DACA, Republicans will get funding for President Trump’s border wall, an end to chain migration including language from a bill from Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) that would do so, an end to the visa lottery, and E-Verify. That would be accompanied by various other border enforcement and interior enforcement measures on immigration. Most importantly, the deal would take those numbers of DACA recipients who would be granted amnesty legislatively out of the total of allowed legal immigrants per year — offsetting the damage that they do to the U.S. economy.

Perhaps these hard-line demands make tactical sense as an opening bid in negotiations. But Trump’s proposal is (almost certainly) dead on arrival as a final offer. Congressional Democrats have been unyielding in their opposition to a border wall, and have no interest in abetting drastic reductions to legal immigration (they are, however, probably open to ending the “diversity lottery”). And they’re not alone: In September, a USA Today survey found that less than 25 percent of congressional Republicans approved of funding Trump’s border wall. Meanwhile, Tom Cotton’s RAISE Act — which would drastically reduce immigration by, among other things, ending “chain migration” — attracted sharp intra-party opposition, particularly in the Senate. In all likelihood, some far-right Republicans will vote against any bill that provides nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants (who are law-abiding, gainfully employed, and were brought to the U.S. as children) with legal status. Passing a DACA deal will require the votes of Democrats and pro-immigration Republicans. Trump’s demands are all but certain to lose such votes — especially since such lawmakers have reason to think that the president’s bluffing.....................................................................