Trump’s Promised Offensive Against Illegal Immigration Has Become Mostly About Legal Immigration
President Suggests Elimination Of Due Process For Asylum Seekers…Or “Invaders” As He Characterizes Them
--
This would be really difficult to make into law, and even then there’s strong legal precedent against it holding up. As University of Texas Law Professor Steve Vladeck points out, the Supreme Court issued an opinion more than 30 years ago stating:
But whether it’ll score political points is a different question, and one Trump’s probably more interested in. And as Trump likes to say “who the hell knows?” (This weekend, Turkey’s President Ergodan got sweeping new powers that eliminated most “checks and balances” in that country’s political system. So it’s not entirely unrealistic for someone like Trump to think his wish of just saying this kind of thing and making it happen might someday be fulfilled.)
And we should’ve seen it coming: back in January during his State of the Union Address, the President introduced what he called “4 pillars” that needed to be part of any immigration reform package he’d sign. Only the first two of the “pillars” address illegal immigration:
- “A path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age.” Interestingly, that number covered not only the 800-million or so people in the DACA program, but an additional 1-million who might’ve qualified but never signed up. Trump explained it by saying he was being “generous”. We still find it somewhat mind-blowing, since Trump’s all about “unfairness” and we don’t agree that people who chose to trust the government, provided the government with information about themselves, and then checked in and complied on a regular basis should all of a sudden be lumped in with everybody who didn’t. But with immigration (as with a lot of stuff)…
