Trump, Pelosi Barrel Toward Final Border Wall Showdown
President Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are headed to a final showdown over his signature border wall, setting the stage for a rematch of a fight two years ago that shuttered the government for 35 days.
The White House is requesting a $2 billion installment to continue building the wall, while Pelosi and House Democrats have countered with no new money for construction.
Democrats have also proposed rescinding earlier wall funding, according to a House Democratic aide.
But whatever the agreed-upon amount, many Republicans are predicting Trump is going to put up a fight for more wall funding.
“It’s extremely critical, and I think he’s going to go to the mat on the border wall. And I think a lot of Republicans are going to go with him,” said Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist.
“The immigration issue is about being pro-worker and pro-jobs, and that is important to the Trump message going forward. And if Republicans don’t put up on this, they’re worried that the base will lose faith in them on one of their issues,” he added.
O’Connell said the wall fight is elevated by President-elect Joe Biden’s vow to reverse Trump’s executive orders on immigration.
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Tariff threats Drive Wedge Between U.S., Mexico, Amid Talks
The United States continued talks with Mexico on Thursday amid U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to slap tariffs on its southern neighbor. If tariffs take effect, that could impact both economies and drive a wedge between Washington and its third largest trading partner, experts said.
At issue is whether Mexico will step up efforts to stop the flow of undocumented migrants crossing its southern border into the United States. Trump has expressed frustration over growing inflow of illegal immigrants. Last month saw a decade-long high in apprehensions of illegal migrants, with 133,000 detained at the border.
Mexico is also used as a route of entry to the United States by violent criminal gangs from El Salvador, such as the infamous MS-13, while many of Trump's supporters also believe that illegal immigration drives down working class wages and increases competition for blue collar jobs.
Illegal immigration will be one of Trump's major platforms in the 2020 elections, and the president believes Mexico has done very little to mitigate the situation. While Mexico on Thursday vowed to provide 6,000 troops to beef up border security, that may not be enough to satisfy Trump's demands.
The U.S. president has threatened that if Mexico does not take action to stem the tsunami of illegal migration, he will slap a 5 percent tariff on Mexican goods that will grow incrementally if no agreement is reached.
TV news personality and Republican Strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua the main problem is that U.S. laws do not reflect the reality on the ground. The vast majority of illegal migrants are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Many are traveling as families, or claiming to be families.
The laws are designed to stop single men from Mexico, rather than families or children migrating alone. Laws make it difficult to detain such individuals, even if they are lying about being under the age of 18. Authorities often have no choice other than to release them into the United States, where they remain indefinitely.
"Thanks to American laws, the people who come here illegally, the majority will never be deported," O'Connell told Xinhua.
"If people don't ever think they are going to be turned away, why would they ever stop coming?" O'Connell said.
GOP Strategist: Illegal Immigrants Are Already ‘Voting’
Why are Democrats so intent on blocking the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census? According to Ford O’Connell at The Hill, it’s because they’re “using illegal immigration to alter the balance of power in the Electoral College from rural, Republican-leaning states to those that are predominately blue and in some cases purple.” No, illegal immigrants can’t vote directly — but they can alter the tally to favor Democrats because electoral votes are based on the number of each state’s residents, not citizens. Indeed, “a quick glance at the 20 metro areas with the largest number of illegal aliens confirms this.” Which explains why Democrats are “purposely ignoring the very real crisis and national emergency unfolding in front of their eyes.”
Republicans Up For Reelection Fear Daylight With Trump
Senate Republicans who are up for reelection next year are sticking as close to President Trump as possible, especially on his signature issue of illegal immigration and border security.
Even as some Senate Republicans broke with Trump over his emergency declaration to build a wall on the Mexican border, most of those running for reelection next year backed Trump — a sign of their fear of Trump-fueled primary opponents.
Only one of the 12 Republicans who voted on Thursday for a Democratic-backed resolution overturning Trump’s emergency declaration is up for reelection next year: Sen. Susan Collins (R), who has a well-established reputation in Maine as an independent.
Republicans running in other swing states who arguably might have benefited from distancing themselves from Trump, such as Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.), Martha McSally (Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.), stuck with him.
GOP strategists said Republicans have little choice given the potency of the issue of border security with Trump’s base.
A recent Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 70 percent of Republicans said they would be more likely to vote for a senator or representative who supports Trump’s national emergency declaration.
“The reason why you had Gardner and Tillis do this is because they knew that the process/principle argument wasn’t going to fly with the Republican base when this is their No. 1 issue. They want execution, and they don’t care how you get it,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist.
O’Connell said Gardner and Tillis, who have two of the most competitive races next year, need to worry about fending off primary challenges and turning out conservative voters in the election, when Democratic turnout is expected to be high.
“Even though they want to fend off primary challenges, this is also a situation where, in the general election, if they cross Trump on this issue, Trump could win their state and they could still lose,” he added. “In a lot of these races, it’s going to be two-point races, whether it’s Gardner or it’s Tillis.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is in a slightly different position.
“Obviously Sasse is more concerned about a primary challenge,” O’Connell said, noting that Trump won Nebraska by 20 points in 2016. Sasse describes himself as a “constitutional conservative” and warned in a statement to National Review magazine in February that Trump’s emergency border declaration undermined the Constitution’s separation of powers.
Voters In 2020 Battleground State Struggle To Excuse Trump's Hiring Of Illegal Immigrants
President Trump’s supporters are shocked and disappointed that his business empire employed illegal immigrants, even while he was in the Oval Office and calling on Congress for a crackdown.
In interviews with Trump voters throughout Pennsylvania, the president got the benefit of the doubt. His supporters said he either was not responsible for front-line hiring decisions or that employing illegal immigrants is a common and near-unavoidable practice in America’s hospitality and construction industries.
About 11 million illegal immigrants are living in the U.S. and 7.8 million have jobs, accounting for nearly 5 percent of the civilian workforce, according to the Pew Research Center.
In the U.S., illegal immigrants make up roughly 53 percent of farmhands, 15 percent of construction labor, and 9 percent of manufacturing and service industry workers, according to Pew.
Ford O’Connell, a Republican Party strategist closely allied with the White House, said the criticism will ring hollow because it comes from Democrats pushing an open-borders agenda of sanctuary cities and voting rights for illegals.
“Obviously the Democrats are going to throw the kitchen sink at him and try to dislodge any support he has in the Rust Belt. That’s what they see as their path to victory,” he said.
Mr. O’Connell said the president can easily bat away the criticism by saying, “As a businessman, I took advantage of a rigged system that works against the American worker. As president, my foremost concern is the American worker, and that’s why I’m working to fix our broken system.
“The problem is the broken system,” he said.
Editorial: In Support Of President Trump And The Wall
Ever since Donald Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign, the idea of a wall at the southern border has been a controversial topic. Many politicians and citizens strongly disagree with the president’s efforts of decreasing illegal immigration via a wall, calling it a “racist” and “unconstitutional” move. Protests have taken place seeing that the wall was introduced, and to add onto Trump’s obstacles, sixteen states are currently suing Trump regarding his national emergency declaration. February 15th was the day that President Donald Trump pursued his mission to protect the American people and the American economy by declaring a national emergency, an effort I support with tremendous pride.
Illegal immigration has been an issue in the United States for quite some time now. This being said, something must be done. Our president is fighting for the wall to protect the United States and to enforce legal immigration. If things were to go his way, illegal immigration would begin to be dealt with at one of its main sources, but his efforts are constantly being blocked by the democratic party.
This statement, public on Homeland Security’s website, sums up the chances of the wall being successful:
“Walls Work. When it comes to stopping drugs and illegal aliens from crossing our borders, border walls have proven to be extremely effective. Border security relies on a combination of border infrastructure, technology, personnel and partnerships with law enforcement at the state, local, tribal, and federal level. For example, when we installed a border wall in the Yuma Sector, we have seen border apprehensions decrease by 90 percent. In San Diego, we saw on Sunday that dilapidated, decades-old barriers are not sufficient for today’s threat and need to be removed so new – up to 30 foot wall sections can be completed.”
Opinion writer Ford O’Connell has similar views about the construction of a wall at the border. In one of his articles, he shares, “until Congress has the will to change the asylum laws and to fix the other legal loopholes and defects, it would be foolish not to better secure the southern border in the meantime.” This statement was released on ‘The Hill’ just a few weeks ago (January 12th, 2019), so his feelings on the topic should still be similar, if not the same.
Emergency Declaration Looms Over 2020 Election
President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build the wall at the southern border will be a powerful weapon in his arsenal as he seeks a second term, regardless of whether he is spurned by the courts or Congress, strategists say.
“As of right now, Trump is sort of running on three issues, one of which is the capitalism vs. socialism debate, late-term abortion, and then it’s border security,” Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, told the Washington Examiner. “I think the national emergency sends the message ‘I am doing everything I can, I am not walking away from this issue no matter what, and you, the voters, need to help me complete it.’”
Trump announced in the Rose Garden last month he would be declaring a national emergency, which allows him to skirt Congress and redirect federal dollars for construction of the border wall.
The president had teased an emergency declaration initially during the 35-day partial government shutdown but stopped short of declaring one and instead urged Congress to reach an agreement on a border deal.
Lawmakers ultimately agreed to a spending bill that allocated $1.375 billion for Trump’s border wall. Rather than shut down federal agencies for a second time, the president opted to sign the legislation and then take unilateral action, including reallocating $3.6 billion from military construction funds under his emergency declaration.
Trump’s action was swiftly challenged in federal courts in the District of Columbia and California, and the president himself acknowledges that, if a case lands before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he will likely face defeat. However, the president is optimistic that the Supreme Court would rule in his favor.
A protracted legal battle could be a boon for Trump, O’Connell said, as it keeps the issue of border security in the news in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
“The litigation allows him to simplify it — are you for border security or against border security?” he said. “What he’s trying to show is how much Democrats and some Republicans, the lengths they will go to try to stop him from doing what he sees as his constitutional duty, which is protecting the safety and security of the U.S. and its citizens.”
Democrats: The Party Of Illegal Immigration
So how is one to interpret the recent statements and actions of these prominent Democrats? The Democrats can talk until they are blue in the face about their support for stronger border security on the nation’s southern border, but when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration, not only do they have zero interest in getting it under control, they are in fact promoting and incentivizing people to come to the U.S. illegally.
The position of today’s Democratic Party on illegal immigration is a radical departure from its stance just a few years ago. In 2009, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that “illegal immigration is wrong.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took a similar position on illegal immigrants in 2008 by stating that “we certainly do not want any more coming in.” And there is former President Obama, who in his 2013 State of the Union address vowed to send illegal immigrants “to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally.”
So what explains Democrats’ startling 180 on illegal immigration?
The lazy, short-term answer is that Donald Trump sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and a central promise of his 2016 campaign was building the wall. Yes, it is no secret that Democrats want to make him a one-term president by driving a wedge between Trump and his base on a key issue. They will stop at nothing to achieve this goal.
But there is a more sinister long-term answer for the Democrats’ whole-hearted embrace of illegal immigration. A 2018 Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund memo sheds light on this. The memo, co-authored by former Hillary Clinton communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, argues that the Democratic Party needs to protect illegal immigrants brought here at a young age as a result of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program because they are “a critical component of the Democratic Party’s future electoral success.”
This is an astonishing statement. It would seem that — as the Washington Times put it — “[w]ith declining support from white and older Americans, the Democrats have concluded that their future lies in importing a new electorate from south of the border.”
So it is full speed ahead on illegal immigration for the Democrats, and they don’t want Republicans gumming up the works even if their name is not Donald Trump. They will claim their position is rooted in compassion and in upholding American values when in fact it is primarily about naked politics and importing a new set of voters, as their ideas become increasingly too far-fetched for the citizens who currently reside legally within America’s borders.
