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View Full Version : Why Trump's immigration compromise is a shrewd move



Peter1469
01-24-2019, 10:50 AM
Why Trump's immigration compromise is a shrewd move (https://theweek.com/articles/819128/why-trumps-immigration-compromise-shrewd-move)

This is an interesting article about the negotiation positions over the partial government shutdown. It seems to be a balanced article, but I imagine some will disagree.


For the past month, Democrats have insisted they will not negotiate with President Trump while the government remains in partial shutdown. The president has spent most of that time insisting he will not negotiate on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for the border wall. As a result, the shutdown broke the previous service-gap record without so much as a vote on alternatives.

This week, however, the logjam may be slowly unwinding, and Trump might be able to take credit for ending the stalemate.

***

Nevertheless, Trump on Saturday offered the first concession since the shutdown started: a three-year extension to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and similar extensions to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations to certain classes of refugees.
The Senate bill introduced to codify this deal had a number of problems, but Trump's concessions were significant. This was the first shift in the standoff and the terms on which it is being fought. It was also the first time the White House had linked DACA to the border wall in this budget go-around, although it had offered to link them in the previous shutdown a year earlier. A three-year extension to the DACA program would protect recipients until at least 2022.


That offer comes close to giving away the whole store for Republicans, in exchange for only a portion of the wall Trump promised to build. If Trump wins re-election and the courts don't dispense with DACA as an unconstitutional construct, he will regain some leverage in a second term to build more border barriers. If he fails to win re-election, though, this deal would mean that DACA would be safeguarded interminably. The same applies to the TPS groups, the status of which the Trump administration had already announced would be revoked in the coming year.

***

At first, Democrats failed to recognize that trap. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) insisted she would not negotiate at all while the government is shut down, a position she undercut by also insisting she wouldn't negotiate on border-wall funding at all, shutdown or no shutdown. Pelosi tried holding the line by warning her caucus against "freelancing" on the standoff (https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1088091275188977664) and sending signals of disunity. Pelosi even went so far as to formally reject Trump's plan to deliver the State of the Union address in a joint session of Congress next week.


But by that time, other members of Democratic leadership had already started "freelancing" and exposing cracks in Pelosi's no-talks armor. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), when asked by Fox's Neil Cavuto whether he would vote for border-wall funding, conceded that "physical barriers are part of the solution (https://hotair.com/archives/2019/01/23/hoyer-retreating-border-barriers-now-part-solution/)." A week earlier, Hoyer had insisted he would oppose such funding. The next day, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) offered to give Trump the $5.7 billion he requested for more border security as long as it wasn't spent on the wall. "If his $5.7 billion is about border security," Clyburn remarked (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown/house-democratic-leader-proposes-5-7-billion-for-border-smart-wall-idUSKCN1PH14I), "then we see ourselves fulfilling that request, only doing it with what I like to call using a smart wall."

And so, negotiations, in fact, are moving along.

Peter1469
01-24-2019, 03:32 PM
And the Dems block the first Senate vote for Trumps plan.

Next vote is the Dem plan.

ripmeister
01-24-2019, 03:33 PM
These votes are silly but I guess they will reveal the current lay of the land.

Peter1469
01-24-2019, 03:38 PM
The second one failed as well.

Peter1469
01-24-2019, 03:40 PM
From CNN

Five Republican voted for the Democratic-backed bill to reopen the government so far. They are...


Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee)
Susan Collins (R-Maine)
Cory Gardner (R-Colorado)
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia)

MisterVeritis
01-24-2019, 03:41 PM
From CNN

Five Republican voted for the Democratic-backed bill to reopen the government so far. They are...


Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee)
Susan Collins (R-Maine)
Cory Gardner (R-Colorado)
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia)

This confirms who our enemies are.

Peter1469
01-24-2019, 03:42 PM
For the GOP from Fox
The final vote on the GOP bill was 50-47. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin (https://insider.foxnews.com/tag/joe-manchin) was the lone Democrat to cross over and support the GOP package, which would have provided $5.7 billion for President Trump's proposed border wall while also offering several immigration-related concessions (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-gop-scrambles-to-prepare-bill-to-end-shutdown-as-trump-hits-back-at-amnesty-suggestions). GOP Sens. Tom Cotton and Mike Lee voted against the Republican measure.