Can McCain free Trump’s ‘dreamer’ hostages?

President Donald Trump now acknowledges that “dreamers” are ... people.

It was a big step.

For him, anyway.

Trump says he is willing to offer a path to citizenship for the 1.8 million undocumented young people who are covered or would be covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

By making that concession, Trump is admitting that dreamers are not criminals or rapists or any other evil incarnate, but young men and women, boys and girls, who have grown up in the United States and are worthy of staying here.

He believes them to be valuable.

Really valuable.

So valuable, in fact, that he is holding them hostage.

If Congress wishes to free them, members must meet his demands.

Trump will release the dreamers from his clutches and allow them to remain in the U.S. in exchange for money.

Lots and lots and LOTS of money. In the real world, we might refer to such a demand as kidnapping and extortion.

In Washington, D.C., it’s just politics.

It is the dirtiest of businesses. Human beings with wives and husbands, children, brothers and sisters, become bargaining chips in a high-stakes game of political poker.

Trump wants $25 billion for his border wall and even more money for infrastructure and technology. And he wants to end to family migration beyond spouses and minor children. And he says that if he doesn’t get what he wants, there will be no deal on the dreamers.

It’s a terrible thing to use human beings as pawns.

To hold them for ransom.

Sen. John McCain and Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat, would like to fix this. They would like to do something that is both practical and humane. To treat people as ... people. They have introduced a bill that would deal with the DACA problem, creating a pathway to citizenship for dreamers, and also provide money for border security.

But not for a wall.

In a statement, McCain said, “Our legislation, which already has broad support in the House of Representatives, would address the most urgent priorities of protecting Dreamers, strengthening border security, alleviating the backlog in immigration courts, and addressing the root causes of illegal immigration.”

Trump doesn’t care about all that. He wants his wall.

He tweeted:

Any deal on DACA that does not include STRONG border security and the

desperately needed WALL is a total waste of time. March 5th is rapidly approaching and the Dems seem not to care about DACA. Make a deal!

The president holds the lives of the dreamers in his hands. He knows it. He’s using it. Would he actually be willing to throw them away? Would he dispose of them? Or is it a bluff to get what he wants?

A competent kidnapper always ends his ransom note with a shrill demand that carries with it an unspoken, unwritten threat.

“Make the Deal!” Trump says in his tweet, without having to add the obvious ...

“Or else.”