Political crisis isn’t over for Republicans in California
The dispute over what to do with the children of immigrants arrested at the border isn’t going away for California’s congressional Republicans, despite President Trump’s surprise decision Wednesday to confine children with their parents in federal detention centers rather than splitting families apart.
While the president’s executive order may give GOP lawmakers temporary breathing room on the family separation issue, Democrats who are targeting GOP-held seats in California to try to retake
the House will not slow their attacks. Some noted that administration officials said Trump’s order will not result in a prompt reunification of the 2,342 children who have been separated from their parents under the administration’s policy of prosecuting all immigrants who try to cross the border without documentation.
“Trump’s executive order does not fix this crisis,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said in a tweet Wednesday. “It gives no solution for the thousands of children who have been torn away from their families and remain separated.”
The pictures of youths being held in chain-link pens and audiotapes of children wailing and calling for their parents have made the dispute an issue that crosses party lines, something that’s nearly impossible for GOP politicians to avoid.
“Can’t sleep tonight. I know I shouldn’t tweet. But I’m angry. And sad,” Spencer Cox, Utah’s Republican lieutenant governor, said on Twitter. “I hate what we’ve become, wife wants to go & hold babies & read to lonely/scared/sad kids. I want to punch someone. Political tribalism is stupid. It sucks & it’s dangerous. We are all part of the problem.”
“Clearly Republicans are looking at the issue with great fear,” said Barbara O’Connor, an emeritus professor of political communications at Sacramento State University. “You have to do something. It can’t be ignored.”
For many of those Republicans, what they say about Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy that brought the crisis on the party can depend on where they sit. GOP Rep. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove (Sacramento County) represents a conservative, heavily rural district where Trump thrashed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, 54 percent to 39 percent.
“There is a simple protection from being separated from one’s family: don’t break the law,” McClintock said in a statement. “Family separation is not the president’s fault for arresting and prosecuting lawbreakers. It is the lawbreakers’ fault for breaking the laws in the first place.”
McClintock’s seat, however, is not a prime Democratic target in November. GOP Rep. Mimi Walters’ Orange County district is, and her reaction to the Trump administration’s separation of immigrant children from their families was quite different.
She argued that the country needs “to secure our border to end illegal immigration,” but also said she has strong concerns about effect of Trump’s policy on families.
“As a mother, I strongly oppose the separation of children from their parents at the border,” she said in a tweet Tuesday. “This action does not reflect our Nation’s values and I will support efforts to stop this practice. We can strengthen our borders while keeping families together.”
Another Orange County Republican facing a tough race this fall, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, has said almost nothing about the family separation question. But he’s made it clear in the past that he stands with Trump on immigration issues.
On his campaign website, Rohrabacher says he “opposes all efforts to legalize the status of those currently in the United States illegally” and wants to secure the country’s borders and keep anyone in the country illegally from getting a job or any government benefits.
Going against the president’s policy — or at least what was the policy before he reversed course Wednesday — is a tough call for Republicans.
“It’s an extremely narrow line to walk,” because Trump has shown that he can destroy a Republican like South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford with a single tweet, said Joseph Tuman, a professor of political and legal communication at San Francisco State. Sanford faced a primary challenge from a Republican who pledged greater loyalty to the president. On election day, Trump endorsed the challenger, and Sanford lost.
Few Republicans know the danger better than Reps. Jeff Denham of Turlock (Stanislaus County) and David Valadao of Hanford (Kings County), who represent Central Valley districts with large numbers of Democratic and Latino voters. Both decided to oppose Trump’s family separation policy.
“While we must work to reduce the occurrence of illegal border crossings, it is unacceptable to separate young children from their parents,” Valadao tweeted Monday. “This is exactly why passage of a compromise solution is absolutely necessary.”
Denham, one of the state’s most endangered GOP lawmakers, already has gone against his party on immigration, pushing unsuccessfully for a maneuver that would have forced a House vote on a number of immigration bills.
“Not only is this current policy unacceptable, but the optics of pulling kids away from their parents is horrible for any party,” he said in a CNN interview Monday.
Democrats were quick to hit back.
“President Trump’s policy of ripping children away from their parents is a stain on our national conscience,” Drew Godinich, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “But for Congressman Jeff Denham, it’s more about the PR ‘optics’ disaster than demanding Trump end this heartless policy. It’s shameful.”
But in politics, “optics” are often what powers an issue like the family separation, Tuman said. “The voice of a crying child is something every parent recognizes, and they feel they need to respond. That’s one reason this issue just blew up with the public.”
With a recent CNN poll showing that two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the policy of splitting children from their families, the safest place for Republican politicians, especially in heavily Democratic California, may be on the other side of Trump’s policy, Tuman said.
But Democrats aren’t likely to let the issue go, even when Republicans appear to be moving across the aisle.
“Our country has a responsibility to protect our borders and uphold the law; this includes moral law,” said Democrat T.J. Cox, who is running against Valadao. “David Valadao and House Republicans have forgotten about our ethical obligations. They are sitting on the sidelines.”
Democrats also don’t plan to let Trump’s executive order end their attacks.
“This executive order does nothing to fix the crisis Trump created,” Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. “Children can still be separated from their parents and locked away in cages. Families seeking asylum still face the horror of indefinite detention.”
For Republican politicians, there aren’t a lot of good options, said O’Connor, the Sacramento State emeritus professor.
“You need to be honest and not mention the president,” she said. “Acknowledge the concerns and then just say what you believe. That’s something that’s been missing in politics, from both parties.”