Not sure DACA is worth caving on so many horrible policies

Jacquelyn Martin AP

During the campaign trail and his first seven months in office, President Trump has generally taken a hard line against undocumented immigrants. There have been times, however, where he seems to be conflicted as to what it means to take a hard line against undocumented immigrants. In speaking about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protects 800,000 youth brought to the US as minors,

“DACA is a very, very difficult subject for me,” he said in February. “To me, it’s one of the most difficult subjects I have because you have these incredible kids, in many cases not in all cases. In some of the cases they’re having DACA and they’re gang members and they’re drug dealers too. But you have some absolutely incredible kids, I would say mostly.”

I don't imagine that there are that many DACA recipients who are gang members and drug dealers, but at least the president is hesitant about removing the protections that these people received under Obama.

In addition, during a telephone call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, President Trump gave the impression that a wall between the US and Mexico was more a political issue rather than something to which he was entirely committed to. He needed Pena Nieto to stop saying that Mexico would not pay for the wall so that he could get something done.

The future of DACA and funding for the border wall now seem to be linked in DC.

Donald Trump’s top aides are pushing him to protect young people brought into the country illegally as children — and then use the issue as a bargaining chip for a larger immigration deal — despite the president’s campaign vow to deport so-called Dreamers.

The White House officials want Trump to strike an ambitious deal with Congress that offers Dreamers protection in exchange for legislation that pays for a border wall and more detention facilities, curbs legal immigration and implements E-verify, an online system that allows businesses to check immigration status, according to a half-dozen people familiar with situation, most involved with the negotiations.

The group includes former and current White House chiefs of staff, Reince Priebus and John Kelly, the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, who both serve as presidential advisers, they said. Others who have not been as vocal publicly about their stance but are thought to agree include Vice President Mike Pence, who as a congressman worked on a failed immigration deal that called for citizenship, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Gary Cohn, a Democrat who serves as director of the National Economic Council.

“They are holding this out as a bargaining chip for other things,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman with the Federation for American Reform, a group that opposes protecting Dreamers and is in talks with the administration.

On the other side, a smaller group — including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his former aides, Stephen Miller, who serves as Trump’s senior policy adviser, and Rick Dearborn, White House deputy chief of staff — opposes citizenship, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

“He getting conflicting advice inside, and that’s caused hesitation,” said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations of Numbers USA, a group that opposes protecting Dreamers and is in talks with the administration. “Obviously president doesn’t want to make a decision but he has to.”

Among other reasons, Congress' failure to pass comprehensive, bipartisan, immigration reform is why we are in this position. Congressmen on both sides of the aisle have been pushing comprehensive reform for over a decade. There's got to be some compromise from both sides but I'm not excited about this trade-off.

Permanent protection for some 800,000 DACA recipients at the same time that their families are torn apart - families and siblings deported. A border wall that will damage our relationship with our southern neighbors. A border wall that will do little to reduce criminal activity along the border (drugs and weapons). A border wall that will make it more dangerous for people escaping desperate situations to find security in the US. More wall and fewer opportunities to legally enter the US. Added detention facilities most likely going to line the pockets of private contractors.

All this at a time when undocumented immigration to the US is at very low levels and when the total number in the country has decreased by approximately two million. I'm not sure that protection for DACA recipients is worth caving on so many horrible policies.