TOWER SUMMIT
Mayor M makes k plea l f for Dreamers D at t meeting ti with ith T Trump i in NYC
Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with President- elect Donald Trump on Wednesday and urged him not to deport the children of illegal immigrants and not to follow through on a campaign threat to cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities.
It was the first face- to- face meeting between Emanuel and Trump, and the mayor tried to use it to his advantage, including a pitch for federal assistance for the two- year police hiring surge and youth mentoring programs that Emanuel hopes will stop a 50 percent surge in homicides and shootings.
Incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and incoming senior adviser Stephen Bannon sat in on the meeting at Trump Tower. Emanuel’s meeting with Trump was scheduled for 30 minutes but went 45. It was followed by a 20- minute meeting with Bannon and Priebus.
Emanuel has participated in two presidential transitions as an aide to former President Bill Clinton and as President Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff.
That’s why topics under discussion at Trump Tower included “White House operations, how to make that work.” But it also included everything from immigration, transportation, education and training to policing, mentoring and gun control.
“I don’t want to put words in his mouth, so I’m careful. But we had a good conversation. I would describe it as frank and honest as well as a healthy exchange of ideas,” Emanuel told the Chicago Sun- Times in a telephone conversation from Manhattan. “He has his views. I have mine. I tried to, on a number of issues, show different ways to look at them.”
Emanuel said he handed the president- elect a letter signed by 14 big- city Democratic mayors asking Trump to continue the Obama policy of allowing youths in the U. S. illegally to remain in the country with legal protections.
These young people, known as Dreamers, were protected under executive orders signed in 2012 by President Barack Obama, which Trump has threatened to withdraw after he takes office.
“The reason they’re called ‘ Dreamers’ is because they are literally pursuing the American dream. And I said it is wrong for the United States to ask them for … personal information and then, do a bait- and- switch” by using that information against them, Emanuel said.
Ever since Trump’s stunning defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton, Emanuel has been reassuring anxious immigrants that Chicago “is and always will be” a sanctuary city where immigrants can access city services and live without fear of police harassment.
After Wednesday’s face- to- face meeting with Trump, Emanuel was asked whether he still believes a sanctuary city standoff can be avoided.
“He heard my passion about peo- ple pursuing the American dream. He heard my personal passion. I told him about my [ immigrant] grandfather — what it means for cities with immigrants who struggle and sacrifice for their children to have a shot at the American dream. A sanctuary city means that people are welcome and they’re supported in that effort,” Emanuel said.
Trump is already softening his hard- line position, telling Time magazine, which named him ‘ Person of the Year’ on Wednesday: “We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud. They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never- never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D- Ill., who turned the plight of an illegal Illinois youth into the national Dreamers movement, said in a statement he was “encouraged” by Trump’s comments.
Illinois Democratic Reps. Luis Gutierrez and Mike Quigley are among those urging Obama to consider mass presidential pardons to protect Dreamers before he leaves office on Jan. 20.