Democrats have the real credibility problem

In the wake of the child separation fiasco, President Donald Trump doesn’t have a credibility problem — but his chief of staff and the Democrats do.

In March 2017, then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly appeared on television promoting child separation as a powerful deterrent to illegal immigration. However, as details emerged about the border situation, his close confidant and successor at DHS, Kirstjen Nielsen, claimed there was no such policy. The messaging was as incompetent and dishonest as the policy was cruel and immoral, and people should be held accountable.

Because President Trump was largely correct on the issue, he doesn’t face a credibility problem. There is no clean executive solution to border enforcement, and Congress is to blame for the ongoing illegal immigration crisis.

Within 48 hours of gaining a full understanding of the situation, the president issued an executive order bringing families back together. However, that order is unlikely to pass legal muster. The 1997 Flores settlement says the government cannot detain immigrant families for more than 20 days. Due to a backlog of tens of thousands of immigration cases, the remaining options are immediate deportation without due process, which is illegal, or “catch and release,” which is ineffectual and unfair to law abiding American citizens.

Congress offers the best hope for a solution. President Trump is open to compromising on “zero tolerance” enforcement and providing a path to citizenship for “Dreamers” — immigrants brought into the country illegally as children — in exchange for border security funding, but Democrats see it more politically expedient to obstruct.

America must balance its role as a haven for the world’s huddled masses with law, order and security. The president wants to find common ground, but the “resistance” is peddling false narratives to avoid making a deal. The Democrats, not the president, have the real credibility problem.