Guest writer

have been howling about what Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, on Twitter, called “lawless Dreamer amnesty for illegal alien children and adults.”

Yet Trump has renewed Dreamer work permits and even issued some new ones. One day after the DHS post, the homeland security agency issued a written statement: “The future of the DACA program continues to be under review with the administration,” it said. “The president has remarked on the need to handle the issue with compassion and with heart.”

Compassion and heart have not been lodestars of Trump administration policies. Nor are they high priorities for his base voters.

Some immigration advocates suspect Trump fears that rescinding DACA would make life too difficult for moderate Republicans. “If they eliminated DACA I really think you’d have a major outcry of unified opposition from the public and it would put major pressure on Congressional Republicans, governors, state/local elected officials,” emailed Tom Jawetz, an immigration expert at the liberal Center for American Progress. “It could further tear apart that already damaged party.”

Trump told the Associated Press in April that his administration is not pursuing Dreamers and that “Dreamers should rest easy.”

He’s not actually willing to ease the stress on Dreamers by declaring them truly secure. But Trump so far has also been unwilling to rescind their work permits and hopes for staying in the U.S. He appears torn between a crude promise made to his political base and what looks very much like presidential pangs of conscience. Imagine that.