Jonathan S. Tobin:
Democrats and their mainstream-media cheering section are panning the Trump administration’s latest terms for granting legal status to the “Dreamers” — illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors and are covered under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi thought they had a deal with Trump that would lead to legislation extending Obama’s amnesty. But whatever was said at a White House dinner last month, Trump’s price for acquiescence to such a measure — a measure both parties want — will not be low. In order to get legal status for the 800,000 who benefit from DACA, Democrats are going to have to agree to more border security and other reforms that will make it harder for people to come to the United States without permission.
The initial response from the Democrats is “nothing doing.” They say they won’t let measures such as funding for Trump’s border wall and more immigration agents, denial of federal grants to so-called “sanctuary cities,” or tougher restrictions on the admission of refugees be part of any deal. Schumer made it clear that he considered these terms to be a way to scuttle DACA negotiations. Trump’s list of conditions was, he said, “anathema to the Dreamers” and “the immigrant community.”
Maybe that’s just a case of Schumer taking a page out of Trump’s book about being a skilled bargainer, and a compromise is still possible. But while the consensus in the liberal mainstream media is that Trump is showing his racist colors and really wants DACA to fail, what he has definitely done is to put the Democrats to the test.
Though Schumer and Pelosi may think widespread public support for relief for the Dreamers gives their party the whip hand in talks with Trump, the Democrats actually have little leverage over the president on this issue. If they want a legislative fix that keeps DACA alive, they are going to have to make substantial concessions to the White House and the Republican congressional leadership — both of which need to show the GOP base that they are serious about curbing illegal immigration.
But the Democrats aren’t eager to take just any deal they can get, either. Any compromise will open them up to accusations from their own base of appeasing the monster in the White House.
While the ongoing civil war within the Republican party has garnered more attention, the dissatisfaction of the Democrats’ base with their party establishment may be just as great. The threat of primary challengers to mainstream Democrats from the left is just as potent as that to Republicans from Steve Bannon’s populist faction. That effort is not just a continuation of the 2016 primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders’s insurgency. At a moment in time when support for the “resistance” is the only thing generating any enthusiasm among Democrats, the notion that their party will support more haggling with Trump that will inevitably give him some reason to claim victory is a non-starter.
That means the choice for Democrats is not what parts of Trump’s immigration wish list to stand firm on but whether any negotiation, no matter how successful, is worth being accused of enabling the man that liberals view not so much as an opponent but as a secular Great Satan.
By offering the Democrats a deal on DACA, Trump has defined the issue of illegal immigration on terms that expose the Democrats’ problem. If their belief is that any efforts to curb illegal immigration — especially the surge of children from Central America arriving without parents — or to stop illegal immigrants from bringing in their entire families are unacceptable, then they have staked out a position that is not nearly as much in tune with public opinion as one focused on relief for the sympathetic Dreamers. It’s one thing to shame Trump over his statements about Charlottesville and his various comments about Mexicans and Muslims. But to treat border security as if it were evidence of racism, as the resistance seems to want to do, is quite another.
Just as important, the willingness of Democrats to accept a compromise tests whether help for the Dreamers is as important to them as fighting Trump is.
Pelosi says they are trying to get the Republicans to vote the way THEY want the to vote. I don’t think she gets it. She says she is willing to shut the government down to get what they want.
Remember that… Pelosi says they will see the government shut down if they don’t get everything their way. The left believes (with good reason) that no matter what they do, Trump will be blamed for failure. However, since 2016, it appears more and more of the public are more attuned to the reality than what the liberal media dishes out. If the government shuts down, it might not go the way it always has in the past.
Also be aware of this: the Democrats NEVER want the illegal immigration problem to be solved. They get far more benefit out of manipulating public opinion over the contention than they get from solving a problem.
Maxine Waters needs to be sent to a a mental institution she is too unstable to be in any kind of office