The White House is doubling down, with plans to implement even harsher immigration policies this year, even as the backlash grows to the Trump administration’s practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the border.
According to a new Politico report published Monday, Trump aides are planning to intensify the immigration crackdown ahead of this year’s midterm elections as a way to gin up votes.
The report notes that Trump’s team is planning “additional crackdowns on immigration before the November midterms.”
More from the report:
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Senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and a team of officials from the Justice Department, Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of Management and Budget have been quietly meeting for months to find ways to use executive authority and under-the-radar rule changes to strengthen hard-line U.S. immigration policies, according to interviews with half a dozen current and former administration officials and Republicans close to the White House.
The goal for Miller and his team is to arm Trump with enough data and statistics by early September to show voters that he fulfilled his immigration promises — even without a physical border wall or any other congressional measure, said one Republican close to the White House.
In other words, not only is the family separation practice a stunt meant to make Trump look tough, but he apparently plans to go even further as a way to drive turnout this fall.
In fact, as the report adds, one of the ideas being developed is a move that would allow the Trump administration to dodge limits on the amount of time these children are kept in government custody.
As Politico reported: “In one of the most closely watched plans under discussion, the Department of Homeland Security has proposed a new rule that former Obama administration officials and immigration advocates worry could be used as an end run around a 1997 court settlement that limits the length of time migrant children can be kept in government custody.”
Trump is handing the midterms to the Democrats
To be clear, the most important part of Trump’s new policy is the inhumane way it treats migrant children and families. Despite the lies being told by the administration, no president has ever done this. The most important reason to halt the practice is that the United States of America has a moral obligation to.
But politically, it’s becoming fatal for Republicans. In fact, Trump could be handing the midterm elections to the Democrats as a Quinnipiac poll released Monday shows a whopping 66 percent of Americans oppose the cruel crackdown at the border. That number is likely to grow as more footage from the border is seen by the world.
Not only is Trump cementing himself as a morally bankrupt president who lacks even the most rudimentary sense of compassion, but he is bringing the entire Republican Party down with him.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
