President Trump seldom makes mistakes but I believe this is a big one. His entire reelection comes down to his first campaign on illegal immigration.
He says he is delaying starting the deportations for two weeks as the Democrats and Republicans try to work out a deal. But, let me ask you. What is more possible? Democrats working with Republicans to find a real solution or the Democrats mugging the feckless Republicans in the House and the Senate?
Just this past week, Democrats added amendments to a bill to provide humanitarian aid at the border that makes it much easier for child sex traffickers and illegal aliens, in general, to come to this country and remain. The Republicans also backed down from more border wall financing and removed it from the bill entirely.
Don’t expect them to grow cojones over the next two weeks. Instead, expect a bill that looks like Pelosi wrote it herself.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday pushed for Trump to halt the deportations, which she called ‘heartless’ and a ‘brutal action which will tear families apart and inject terror into our communities.’
In announcing the delay, Trump gave Congress an ultimatum to fix ‘loopholes’ in the asylum process, likely referring to the patchwork of legal restrictions which allow many Central Americans to cross the border illegally and quickly walk free if they arrive with a child.
Just hours earlier, Trump had been adamant that the enforcement action would move forward – even insisting that it would have a deterrent effect that would help the situation at the border, where illegal crossings have skyrocketed.
‘These are people that came into the country illegally – they’ve been served and gone through a process of the courts. They have to be removed from the country, and they will be removed from the country,’ Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Saturday morning while departing for Camp David.