The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website September 5, 2017:
THE BIG IDEA: By their fruits you will know them.
At the Republican National Convention last summer, Donald Trump said he’d “do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens.” Then he rescinded protections for trans students in public schools and issued orders to bar transgender people from the armed forces.
Trump pronounced the House’s health-care bill “mean,” but that did not stop him from whipping votes for the measure and holding a rally in the Rose Garden to celebrate its passage.
At a February news conference, Trump was asked about fears in the Hispanic community that he might get rid of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “We’re going to show great heart,” the president promised. “DACA is a very, very difficult subject for me. … You have these incredible kids, in many cases … They were brought here … We are going to deal with DACA with heart … because, you know, I love these kids. I love kids! I have kids and grandkids.”
Today the Trump administration is expected to announce plans to end the DACA program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 undocumented people who were brought to the United States as minors to live and work in the country without fear of deportation. The government will reportedly delay enforcement for six months to give Congress time to find a legislative solution that lets the “dreamers” remain in the country legally. “The president and his senior advisers continued to deliberate Monday afternoon, and aides cautioned that Trump could still change his mind ahead of the announcement,” David Nakamura reports.
— During Richard Nixon’s first year in the White House, his attorney general sought to reassure anxious African American activists by telling them that they should not worry too much about the president’s rhetoric. “You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say,” John Mitchell said.
In the present administration, that’s true now more than ever.
Trump has often talked about the need to be compassionate on social issues, but his rhetoric hasn’t matched reality as he has repeatedly acceded to the wishes of his dwindling base since taking office.
— Trump gets that the optics of ending DACA are bad. Administration officials are trying to spin the six-month delay as a compromise and accommodation. Jeff Sessions, an anti-immigration hawk who has pressed Trump to kill DACA, is scheduled to make an on-camera announcement at 11 a.m. today from the Justice Department, not the White House. The attorney general will not answer any questions.
The president often said before he became a candidate that it would be unrealistic to deport people who have spent decades in the United States, especially children. “You have people in this country for 20 years: They’ve done a great job, they’ve done wonderfully, they’ve gone to school, they’ve gotten good marks (and) they’re productive,” he said in a 2011 interview on Fox News. “Now we’re supposed to send them out of the country? I don’t believe in that.”
A batch of new stories quote aides saying that Trump has agonized over what to do. For example, this is on the front page of today’s New York Times: “For months, an anxious and uncertain President Trump was caught between opposing camps in the West Wing … Last week, with a key court deadline looming … Mr. Trump, exasperated, asked his aides for ‘a way out’ of a dilemma he created by promising to roll back the program as a presidential candidate. … Mr. Trump’s frenzied weekend search for an alternative to abruptly ending the program was a fitting finale to his anguished deliberations over DACA since he took office. Aides have portrayed it as a difficult emotional decision for the president.”
— Many commentators believe this is hooey. “Some in the media take seriously the notion that he is ‘conflicted’ or ‘wrestling’ with the decision, as though Trump were engaged in a great moral debate,” writes conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin. “That would be a first for Trump, who counts only winners and losers, never bothering with moral principles or democratic norms. The debate, if there is one, is over whether to disappoint his rabid anti-immigrant base or to, as is his inclination, double down on a losing hand.”
Of Trump’s promise that he’d make the DACA decision with heart, liberal blogger Paul Waldman writes: “If you believed that for a second, you were a fool. … Trump began his presidential campaign saying, ‘When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.’ He alleged that the judge in the Trump University fraud trial couldn’t do his job objectively because ‘He’s a Mexican’ (the judge is in fact an American of Mexican heritage). He repeatedly told lurid stories of individual crimes committed by an undocumented immigrant, especially if the victim was a ‘beautiful’ white girl, even though immigrants actually commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. As president he followed up by creating the Victims of Immigrant Crime Engagement Office, which exists in order to publicize crimes committed by immigrants. A month ago, he endorsed a bill in Congress that would slash legal immigration levels in half. He claimed, ludicrously, that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton only because millions of undocumented immigrants voted for her. And the symbolic centerpiece of his campaign was a wall along our border with Mexico.” (Trump also pardoned Joe Arpaio.)
— Retiring GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban American who represents the Miami area, also seized on Trump’s promise to “show great heart”:
Immigration advocates speak to Harvey evacuees who are in the country illegally at a Houston shelter. (Elliot Spagat/AP)
WHY THIS MATTERS — THE HUMAN DIMENSION:
— “Their lives were transformed by DACA. Here’s what will happen if it disappears,”by Maria Sacchetti: “A former waiter, born in El Salvador, now writes code for a U.S. Navy contractor. A young man from South Korea is using the money he makes selling pastries to help pay for community college. And a psychology major from Ecuador, who feared she’d be stuck babysitting all her life, now plans to earn a doctorate and move to New York. They are among nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants whose lives were transformed by (DACA). … Some became high school valedictorians. Others are lawyers, engineers or medical professionals. Hundreds returned to school, because [DACA] required it, and made it easier in some states to seek tuition assistance. … If Trump phases out the program … those young people will become undocumented again — eventually losing their work permits, jobs and health insurance and, in many states, their driver’s licenses. The job losses alone — about 30,000 a month — would cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars in taxes and retraining, according to estimates by the Center for American Progress and Fwd.us.”
— Related: “‘If they deport all of us, who will rebuild?’ Undocumented workers could be key to Texas recovery,” by Arelis R. Hernández and Aaron C. Davis in Houston. “Leaders in the construction industry have begun sounding alarms that there will not be enough American-born workers to rebuild as quickly as needed. ‘If they would relax the rules, honestly, that would be great, we could use it,’ said Jeffrey Nielsen, executive vice president of the Houston Contractors Association.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan speak to the media outside the White House this spring. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
WILL CONGRESS ACT?
— Once again, there is fear among top Republicans on Capitol Hill that Trump is setting them up to be the fall guys. If something doesn’t get done, the president will blame them.
— “The odds that a sharply polarized Congress could strike a deal — steep in the best of times — are considered especially difficult at a time when lawmakers face a busy fall agenda,” David Nakamura reports. “House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah) and several other GOP leaders have urged Trump not to end the program. … Moderate congressional Republicans, and even some conservatives, suggested that they are open to crafting a legislative deal … (But) Ryan and other GOP leaders have not laid out a new legislative path, including whether the dreamers’ future would be addressed in isolation — which would appeal to Democrats and moderates — or be coupled with proposals to increase border security and tighten immigration controls, which could win greater support from conservatives. … Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), an immigration hard-liner, suggested that he would be open to giving the dreamers legal permanent residence provided that any deal also include his legislative proposal, called the Raise Act, which would slash legal immigration levels by half over a decade. … Others have suggested that Trump could attempt to use the dreamers to bargain for a down payment — an estimated $1.6 billion — on the U.S.-Mexico border wall he promised voters during the campaign.”
— “DACA to test Bannon’s juice outside the White House,” by Politico’s Eliana Johnson, Josh Dawsey and Andrew Restuccia: “(Steve) Bannon, who has reclaimed his post at the helm of Breitbart News and believes the fight over immigration propelled Trump to the presidency, has told associates he’s prepared to take on both Ryan and [Mitch McConnell] over immigration this fall. … [A] senior White House aide said that if Republican lawmakers fail to agree on a plan, he didn’t expect Trump to follow through on terminating DACA — a prospect that would test Bannon’s commitment to support his former boss from the outside.”
— This also adds another big-ticket and highly polarizing item to the congressional agenda, which will make it marginally harder to pass the president’s highest priorities — including an overhaul of the tax code.
President Trump bows his head during prayer with faith leaders. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)
ELITE BACKLASH MOUNTS:
— Members of Trump’s evangelical advisory board, who stood by him even in the wake of his widely condemned Charlottesville response, have pleaded with the president to show more empathy. “I know these kids,” Atlanta-area pastor Jentezen Franklin recalled telling Trump last week. “They are good kids?” Trump reportedly asked. “Yes, sir, they are.” Franklin said he replied. He then noted Trump’s love for his own kids. “I want to see that kind of heart toward these children,” Franklin told Trump. (Frances Stead Sellers)
— More than 400 chief executives — from many of the country’s biggest companies — signed a petition urging Trump and Congress to protect Dreamers. A national business coalition, founded by Michael Bloomberg to advocate for immigration changes, has more than 100 corporate and conservative leaders lined up in at least 15 states to call on Congress to act. The lobbying will take the form of private meetings both in Washington and in members’ home districts, letters to member of Congress, newspaper op-eds and public events. (Tracy Jan)
— The American Council on Education, which represents nearly 1,800 higher education officials, issued a statement criticizing Trump’s decision. “To our students, and all those who are potentially affected, be assured that the nation’s colleges and universities will actively, strongly and persistently urge Congress to swiftly approve legislation to enable you to maintain your current status,” said Ted Mitchell, the council’s president. (Nick Anderson)
— An NBC-Survey Monkey poll released last week found that 64 percent of Americans back this program, including 41 percent of Republicans.
HOW THE STORY IS PLAYING ACROSS THE COUNTRY:
- AP: “Young immigrants prepare for worst if Trump ends protections.”
- ABC News: “Dreamers head back to school facing fears about DACA’s future.”
- People Magazine (picking up a story in the Houston Chronicle): “Man Who Drowned Trying to Save Harvey Victims Benefited from the DACA Program Trump Wants to End.”
- Fox News: “Republicans divided on Trump’s expected DACA announcement.”
- USA Today: “DACA fix could ‘overwhelm’ Congress that has failed to devise an immigration solution.”
- BuzzFeed: “How DACA Became An Orphan In Trump’s White House.”
- Chicago Sun-Times: “Dreamers worry as they await Trump’s decision on DACA.”
- Denver Post: “Coloradans express concerns about Trump’s apparent decision to end DACA.”
- KFOR (NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City): “‘It’s a scary emotion at the same time,’ Oklahoma DACA participants await decision.”
- The Tampa Bay Times: Two of the Republican candidates for governor in Florida issued statements offering support for young immigrants and say Congress needs to act. “…The children of illegal immigrants should not be punished for their parents’ wrongdoings,” said Adam Putnam. “We must lead with a compassionate heart, not by punishing children,” said Jack Latvala.
- Boston TV stations and newspapers are covering Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker saying he hopes Trump does not follow through on his plans to get rid of the program. (WBZ)
- The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette runs a story about Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, up for reelection next year in a state Trump carried, saying ending DACA is “not only wrong and immoral … it’s really bad for our economy.”
- Newsmax: “Trump a ‘Liar’ If He Doesn’t Protect DACA: Hispanic Chamber Chief.”
- Breitbart: “Hillary Clinton Lobbies for DACA as Obama Plans Rebuke.”
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