Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
DACA backers aim to reach the president
Accord possible if Trump softens stance
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers who favor a deal to protect some 700,000 young immigrants facing possible deportation because of the end of the Obama administration’s DACA program are seeking to drive a wedge between President Donald Trump and hard-liners on his staff, launching appeals directly to a president who they see as potentially sympathetic to people brought illegally to the U.S. as children.
In his public comments, Trump has shown an unwillingness to be boxed in by his most hard-line advisers on immigration. He initially wavered on what to do with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has protected the young immigrants known as “Dreamers,” then openly contradicted Attorney General Jeff Sessions hours after the attorney general announced the end of the program last month.
The day that announcement was made, Trump initially said that only Congress could step in and protect the young immigrants, who will begin losing their work permits and deportation deferrals starting in March.
By day’s end, he had softened, writing on Twitter that if Congress failed to act, he would “revisit the issue.”
It’s that tendency of the president to rely on his own instincts and buck his staff ’s advice that Democratic lawmakers, some Republicans and advocates of immigrants hope to capitalize on as negotiations get underway in earnest to come up with legislation to provide legal status for DACA recipients.
On Sunday, the White House demanded harsh terms from lawmakers. The proposals read like a wishlist from immigration hardliners in the administration, including Trump’s speech writer and senior policy director, Stephen Miller, who used to work for Sessions. Whether Trump will stick to that approach will go a long way toward shaping the debate over the next several weeks.
Some immigration advocates say they have reason to believe he won’t do so. Trump’s instincts are to be tough on immigration, but he has indicated a willingness to make an exception for children brought to the country illegally at a young age, said Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice, and a longtime advocate for immigration reform.
“He gets that exposing these kids to deportation would go down in history and would define his presidency,” Sharry said.
“He got played by his staff,” Sharry said. “The question is, will the boss fall for it again?”
But that’s only one possible interpretation of Trump’s actions. Other immigrant advocates say they have stopped giving the president any benefit of the doubt.
Some leading advocates for immigration restriction say they’re not concerned about Trump giving away too much.
“Those counter-signals he sends are things that suggest he’s open to a little negotiation,” said Roy Beck, the head of Numbers USA, a Virginia-based group that advocates reducing legal immigration levels.
While Trump’s first offer on immigration has little chance of passing, it set down markers which allied him with the most restrictionist voices on the Republican side of the debate over immigration.
Tripling the number of deportation officers, shutting off legal immigration channels, and clamping down on asylum claims, among other proposals, reflect a view that new immigrants take jobs from native-born Americans.
But while those views are strongly held by some members of Congress, people on Trump’s staff and a large share of his voters, many other Republicans disagree. Even before the White House released its list of demands, some Republican lawmakers had dismissed the idea as unworkable of trying to make far-reaching changes in the immigration system in the short time available to protect DACA recipients.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., complained at a Judiciary Committee hearing last week that the list of proposals that were then under discussion at the White House “reads like a laundry list” for comprehensive immigration reform.
“It would be very helpful to get from the administration what the priority is,” Tillis said. “I, for one, think that should be a respectful, compassionate, sustainable treatment for the DACA population, and it must include some border security,” Tillis added. “I think that would be a good success for the president.”