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Every week during the Trump administration, it's like being in a year, but this one was particularly overwhelming. Congress is finally monitoring events. Several hearings are breaking new ground every day, with disturbing appearances by Attorney General William Barr at the delightful return match between House Finance Committee Chair Maxine Waters and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin.
The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, arrested, the sister of President Trump resigning from the federal judiciary to avoid any investigation into the family's fraudulent schemes, fire of churches blacks in Louisiana and the proposal made in Texas to subpoena women who have had a failed abortion. Oh, and the president's for-profit country club turns out to be "a counter-intelligence nightmare".
But as long as the Sturm und Drang on the unpublished report of Mueller and the coming and going of the prerogatives of the Congress, a number illustrates the fact that the president and his accomplices of the Republican party are preparing for the election campaign for a campaign on scorched earth like this one have never seen. I'm talking about the recent purge of the Department of Homeland Security and the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Last Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was fired, apparently because she had refused to break the law at Trump's request. She had done her best to be as cruel as necessary, lying and defending the odious policy of separation of children, to the point of explaining that the cages in which the children were being held did not look like animal cages because they were bigger. Trump was still not satisfied. With the exception of a few moments of joy when Nielsen ordered the gassing of women and children at the border, the president felt that she was too sweet.
This referral was not totally unexpected. Trump had abruptly withdrawn his candidate for the post of director of ICE, citing his desire "to go in a harder direction". After firing Nielsen, it became clear that he was purging the department. By prematurely appointing Kevin McAleenan, Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Nielsen's acting replacement, it became clear that he also had to fire the next lawyer, Claire Grady, Acting Assistant Secretary. She resigned Tuesday. The same day, Randolph "Tex" Alles, director of secret services, was also ousted. Rumors abound about more "heading to the door."
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the administration had repeatedly offered ICE officials to detain immigrants and then send them to sanctuary cities to send a message to Democrats who were opposed to the president's policy. The White House confirmed that such proposals had been released.
This major advance in immigration comes as the situation at the border continues to deteriorate, with thousands of asylum seekers seeking to cross in anticipation of the withdrawal of foreign aid by Tump and the United States. likely changes in the management of asylum laws. This fits perfectly with Trump's desire to keep this issue in the foreground as he moves into full-time campaign mode for the 2020 elections. end he named Stephen Miller, an advisor to the White House, an anti-immigrant extremist, in charge of immigration policy. Miller was known to be hostile to Nielsen and the ICE alert throwers who spoke to the Post said that everyone understood that Miller was behind the city-sanctuary plot.
It is clear that Trump and Miller believe that they need leadership within the DHS who will want to go further than family separations, children in cages, tear gas and the release of prisoners in sanctuary cities to avenge political rivals. I shudder to think about what they have in mind, but it's fair to assume that Trump feels confident that Barr, who has expressed an absurdly expansive view of executive power, will approve everything he wants to do .
It is unclear whether the courts will accept such drastic proposals such as a decree terminating birthright citizenship, an increasing number of evictions of undocumented workers already in the United States or offering parents a " choice "between unlimited detention with their children or their request for asylum. But if the rumors are true, it seems that the administration is ready to try all or part of these things. According to CNN, Trump told border patrol officers that if the judges "get in trouble, say," Sorry, judge, I can not do it. We do not have the room. "
He is certainly increasing the rhetoric:
There is a reason for all this and it is not just Trump and Miller 's real disdain for immigrants of what Trump calls "hogwash lands". He has an instinct for the concerns of his base, but it is also likely that politicians tell him that it is vital to tackle the issue of immigration to maintain it.
Ron Brownstein, Atlantic, writes that the 2019 GOP has been transformed under Trump intohas a extreme political party, anti-immigrant doctrinaire, which now unanimously supports the wall of borders and is ready to support brutal reductions in legal immigration. (Previously, the party's predominant wing for party affairs was generally supportive of a more flexible immigration policy.) One of the reasons for this new unanimity on the issue is the fact that Republican officials only represent more regions of the country with a significant level of diversity. . Brownstein explains further:
[T]Republican consent to Trump also reflects the more general reality that the party now relies on an electoral base that is largely focused on the white voters most hostile to immigration and the most concerned about demographic changes – which I have referred to as a "restoration coalition". These attitudes, with a few exceptions, are dominant not only among white Republicans with no university degree that form the basis of Trump, but also among Republican graduates of higher education who have voiced more scruples about the role of Trump. other aspects of Trump's behavior.
In other words, hostility towards immigrants is the glue that keeps his coalition of white voters. Those without university education, conservative evangelicals, etc., will stay with him. But those white guys educated at the university who do not care about his antics are always with him on this issue and he can not afford to lose them.
Trump is the undisputed leader of this anti-immigrant coalition, but he became the leader by listening carefully to what these people wanted to hear and giving them. A Republican strategist told Brownstein:
It's 20 years in the making. The party did that before Trump, but he put the exclamation point on it. It's not the same party. I told people, "It's party time. And you will not change it. "
Trump and Stephen Miller have no intention of trying to change it. They believe it's their ticket for a second term. And they are clearly willing to push the legal and constitutional envelope as much as necessary to achieve it.
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