President embraces immigration court fight as election boost

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s rejection of DACA, one of Donald Trump’s key immigration measures reignites a hotbutton issue in a presidential campaign already scorched by pandemic, economic collapse and protests over police brutality and racial injustice.

The president is betting that he can energize his most loyal supporters by fighting the Supreme Court, which decided on procedural grounds Thursday that he couldn’t end legal protections for young immigrants protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Trump, who often attempts to shift the nation’s focus to immigration when forced to defend himself on other fronts, said Friday he would renew his legal effort.

His immigration push is risky, even for someone who has built his political career on defying conventional wisdom. It could allow Trump to fire up his base on an issue that was a centerpiece of his 2016 victory while highlighting Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s struggle to win over Latino voters. But it could also further alienate swing voters including suburban women who could decide the election.

Some Republicans say that, with less than five months before November, it’s not a fight worth having.

“It doesn’t make any political sense, or moral sense or ethical sense,” said Republican strategist Tim Miller, a frequent Trump critic and veteran of Jeb Bush’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential run. “Anybody that likes (Trump) because of his willingness to ‘go there’ on racial and immigration issues is already with him, and he’s not picking up anybody else.”

Still, Trump has built his presidency around hard-line immigration policies and a crackdown on the U.S.-Mexico border. He’s been eager to return to those themes after months of negative headlines about the coronavirus and an economy devastated by it.

The president plans to travel to Arizona next week to celebrate 200 miles of new border wall that has been completed during his term, and hold just his second rally after months of campaigning suspended amid more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19.

His decision to resume big rallies despite virus concerns is another example of his determination to transform an issue into a political fight his supporters can embrace.

But COVID and the border wall are different from the 8-year-old DACA program, which protects 650,000 people brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and authorizes them to work.

Polls show widespread support for the program, as well as for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally through no fault of their own.

Some Trump allies acknowledge worries about losing support among moderates. But the president and some of his aides argue that will be easily offset by excitement among steadfast conservatives.

Biden, meanwhile, has promised to send legislation to Congress codifying DACA on his first day as president, if elected. But he has also refused to back decriminalizing illegal border crossing, unlike Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and other Democrats who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination.

Sanders routinely out-polled Biden among Latino voters during the primaries, helping power the senator’s big wins in Nevada and California, though Biden saw some improvement among Hispanics in places like Texas and Arizona.

Chuck Rocha was Sanders’ top aide on Latino outreach and has since launched a political action committee aimed at motivating Hispanic voters, especially in battleground states like Pennsylvania. He said he already has “people in the film room“and is planning to use the DACA decision — and the president’s vow to go back to court — “to draw a contrast between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.”