Trump backing off his plan for dealing with illegal immigration . . . again!

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Trump DACA DREAMers illegal immigration amnesty

Donald Trump – January 2017 statement on his illegal immigration plan

One of the reasons that Donald Trump was elected was his plan for fixing the illegal immigration problem, a plan that he is already backing off from when it comes to DACA, DREAMers, amnesty, and a pathway to citizenship.

In an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker this past weekend, Trump was asked about the particulars involved with his plan to deport millions of undocumented people residing in the United States. After first stating that he would focus on deporting criminals “first,” he later added that he would work with Democrats to protect DREAMers from deportation (via Latin Times):

On Sunday, NBC’s Kristen Welker questioned Trump about his plans to deport millions of undocumented people residing in the United States. Trump emphasized his focus on deporting criminals “first,” adding, “then we’re starting with the others.”

Welker then asked Trump, “What about the Dreamers?” At first, Trump responded vaguely, “The Dreamers are going to come later, and we have to do something about the Dreamers.” As Welker pushed for a more specific answer, Trump said, “I will work with the Democrats on a plan…but the Democrats have made it very difficult.”

“Do you want them to stay?” Welker asked. “I do,” Trump responded. “I want to work something out.” The President-elect went on to say that “Republicans are very open to the Dreamers.” He then criticized President Joe Biden for not having worked “something out” over the past four years. (Emphasis mine)

If this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve heard it before.

Two of Barack Obama’s most notable policies during his presidency were his 2012 executive order known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — later known as DREAMers — and his 2014 executive order granting amnesty and “legal status” for millions of adult illegal immigrants who would later become known as Democrat voters. Obama’s amnesty order would later be ruled unconstitutional by the 5th Circuit of Appeals, a decision upheld by the US Supreme Court.

Following eight years of Barack Obama’s “leadership” on the issue, illegal immigration was a hot topic during the 2016 election, and Donald Trump played the “never let a crisis go waste” card to leverage that concern. This is when Trump first promised to build a wall and “have Mexico pay for it” and to overturn his predecessor’s DACA executive order — even though he secretly agreed with Obama’s pro-amnesty policies.

In an interview with Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Trump was asked about his plan to rescind Obama’s DACA and DREAM Act executive orders and how he would deal with illegal immigrants already in the country under those orders. In his usual non-specific way, Trump assured Todd “that it will work out so well” that he will insist on another interview near the end of Trump’s first term and would declare “What a great job you’ve done, President Trump.”

After winning the 2016 election, Time Magazine named Trump their “Person of the Year.” In his interview with Time, Trump was asked about the millions of DREAMers in the country at the time under Obama’s DACA executive order and his promise to deport them. His answer confirmed his equivocation on the matter.

“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud. They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.” (Emphasis mine)

A few weeks after moving into the White House, Trump made it clear that he had no intention of overturning DACA when he decided to keep Obama’s order in place, thus allowing one million DREAMers — the estimated number at the time — to stay in the country.

Months later, Trump took another step in support of illegal immigration when he issued his fake executive order “rescinding” Obama’s DACA order. But instead of rescinding it, the reality is that he gave Congress six months to make it permanent . . . or else. In other words, he lied.

In January 2018, Trump introduced what he called “a bill of love” to fix DACA. In a meeting with Democrats at the time, Trump admitted that his position on DACA would be whatever Congress tells him it should be, and he agreed to sign any bill brought to his desk because he had “confidence” Congress would come up with something “really good.” He also promised to “take the heat” from his base for lying about bringing an end to DACA.

In January 2019, Trump appointed son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner to the Gang of Twenty — a group created to revive Lindsey Graham’s Gang of Eight — for the purpose of coming up with a plan to grant amnesty and an eventual pathway to citizenship for millions of so-called DREAMers and to make DACA permanent in exchange for border wall funding. One of the proposals presented by Kushner and Graham was an offer to Democrats to save DACA in exchange for border wall funding . . . WITHOUT CONDITIONS!

In the days leading up to the 2020 election, and with his chances of victory obviously fading away, Trump announced that he would be signing “a very major immigration bill” that would provide a “road to citizenship” to the innumerable illegal aliens enrolled in Obama’s DACA program. Though he referred to it as a “bill,” he confirmed that he would use an executive order to accomplish the task:

Republican Party “leaders” repeatedly promised to work with Donald Trump to rescind DACA and fix the illegal immigration problem, but just like abortion, government spending, and pretty much every other conservative priority, their promise was a lie used to raise money. In the end, they had no intention of rescinding it because they supported it and wanted to save it.

During the 2024 election season, I presented an article showing the lack of discernable policy differences between the Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the area of illegal immigration. Sadly, but not surprisingly, Trump just confirmed everything I wrote in that piece.

Donald Trump never intended to rescind DACA in 2016, and he doesn’t intend to rescind now because he always planned on creating a pathway to citizenship and to grant amnesty for the hundreds-of-thousands millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. He just wanted it re-branded with his name on it instead of Obama’s.

Gee… I wonder if any of Trump’s other campaign promises were lies.

 

David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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