CALL FOR ‘NUCLEAR OPTION’
Trump’s past calls to for the “nuclear option” — changing Senate rules so that a simple majority of 51 votes is needed to advance legislation, instead of the current 60 votes — have been dismissed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell says Republicans will welcome the 60-vote margin if they return to the minority. The current 51-49 Senate split favours Republicans.
Trump announced last year that he was ending the program that protects young “Dreamer” immigrants, but the Department of Homeland Security is continuing to issue renewals because of a court order.
Notably, his favoured solution for extending protections to them mustered only 39 votes in the Senate, meaning it couldn’t have passed even if the rules had been changed.
Trump’s tweets calling on Mexico to halt “caravans”
TRUMP’S TWEETS CALLED ON MEXICO TO HALT ‘CARAVANS’ OF MIGRANTS IN THE SOUTH.
followed a Fox & Friends report Sunday that featured the leader of the union representing border patrol agents predicting that those in the caravan would create havoc and chaos in the U.S. as they wait for immigration reform.
About 1,100 migrants, many from Honduras, have been marching along roadsides and train tracks in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
These “Stations of the Cross” migrant caravans have been held in southern Mexico for at least the last five years. They began as short processions of migrants, some dressed in biblical garb and carrying crosses, as an Easter-season protest against attacks against Central Americans as they cross Mexico.
Individuals in the caravans often try to reach the U.S. border but usually not as part of the caravan. The caravans typically don’t proceed much farther north than the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. The current march is scheduled to end this month in the state of Puebla.