Apparently, President Donald Trump is about to make life much easier for aliens with children who are apprehended after making an illegal entry.
The Flores Settlement Agreement prevents him from detaining, for more than 20 days, children apprehended after making an illegal crossing into the United States. And because all hell broke loose when he separated the children from their parents, he is now releasing their parents, too.
But according to his his tweets on Friday, that isn’t all he is going to do for them.
I’m sure he was being sarcastic when he said this should make them very happy, but it really should make the Democrats very happy. The government would be providing these families with free transportation to places that are welcoming undocumented aliens, i.e. the sanctuary cities.
{mosads}In fact, many of them are headed for sanctuary cities anyway. In 2014, California, which is a sanctuary state, was home to between 2.35 million and 2.6 million undocumented immigrants. Nearly a quarter of the nation’s undocumented immigrants lived there. Roughly one in 10 California workers was an undocumented immigrant. And the population of undocumented aliens in California has gotten even larger since then.
But it turns out that Trump was right: The Democrats are upset.
I was astonished to see an article titled “Pelosi fumes over White House plan to release immigrant detainees in sanctuary cities.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should be celebrating, not fuming.
Pelosi’s communications director, Ashley Etienne, told The Washington Post, which reported the story Thursday, “The extent of this Administration’s cynicism and cruelty cannot be overstated. … Using human beings — including little children — as pawns in their warped game to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants is despicable, and in some cases, criminal.”
“The American people have resoundingly rejected this Administration’s toxic anti-immigrant policies, and Democrats will continue to advance immigration policies that keep us safe and honor our values,” she added.
How is giving these alien families free transportation to places they already intend to go a “warped game to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants”?
And how did someone convince Trump that he should think about doing something this counterproductive? The fact that illegal crossers who bring children with them are not detained has become a powerful pull factor that has dramatically increased illegal immigration to the United States. Providing them with free transportation to sanctuary cities when they get here will make the pull even stronger.
I don’t know who to root for.
Trump is shooting himself in the foot, and Pelosi’s communications director sounds like the Mad Hatter.
Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an executive branch immigration law expert for three years. He subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years.