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Donald Trump took a break from cable news watching and golfing to demand congressional Democrats give him his stupid border wall and other fringe items from his white supremacist wish list in exchange for the 800,000 undocumented immigrant youth he’s currently holding hostage.
“The Democrats have been told,” he tweeted, “and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!”
And the tweeter-in-chief and congressional Republicans have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no full spending bill next month without Democratic votes, and Democratic leaders have made clear that deal must include protections for DACA recipients.
Unlike Trump’s wish list—a border wall, an end to so-called “chain migration,” and other fringe ideas have been the platform of anti-immigrant hate groups for years—the DREAM Act has the support of both the American public and Congress.
“Americans support a solution and expect their elected representatives to deliver it,” says immigrant rights group America’s Voice. “More than 8 out of 10 Americans want Congress to find a way so that young immigrants are able to remain in America; 2 out of 3 Republicans want the same. The only place where this issue seems to be the least bit controversial is in Washington, DC.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s unpopular demands, lead by the ghoulish Stephen Miller, would be unlikely to pass Congress on their own. “Funding for a border wall, a modified Trump campaign promise, has found little support in the Republican-controlled Congress,” reports The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel:
Democrats remain resolutely opposed to wall funding, and many Republicans favor funding for “border security” that would not be earmarked for an actual wall. Polling this year has found low public support for the wall concept; in August, a Fox News poll found barely 3 in 10 Americans supportive of the idea, and about as many convinced that Mexico could be made to pay for it. The president, by citing a year-long drop in illegal border crossings, has also given some breathing room to moderate Republicans who see security funding, not a wall, as a reasonable compromise.
Not to mention that Trump is attacking the very things he and his family members have personally benefitted from:
"It appears that Trump’s own family takes advantage of the immigration system when it suits them,” said former American Immigration Lawyers Association president David Leopold.
And 122 DACA recipients are losing their work permits, driver’s licenses, and protection every single day Congress doesn’t act. With real lives at stake here, what undocumented immigrant youth need is for congressional Democrats to hold the line for them come January.
“We’re not going to negotiate through the press,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office said in response to Trump’s tweet, “and look forward to a serious negotiation at Wednesday’s meeting when we come back.”