Immigration Back On The Front Burner

If there was one defining promise made by Donald J. Trump during the 2016 presidential election campaign, it was that the U.S. would finally begin securing its border and build a “great, big, beautiful wall.” Earlier this week, the White House sent a friendly reminder to Congressional leaders that the president is working on keeping that promise to the American people.

Democrats Enraged

This comes on the heels of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Trump dealt with last month. According to The Daily Caller the immigration list sent to the lawmakers this week “infuriated Democrats” but said they would “put the needs of American workers first.”

How thoughtful of them.

The immigration wish list advanced by the West Wing included funding the border wall, adding a merit-based immigration system, and speeding up deportations. The goal, according to “White House legislative director Marc short is to create a ‘deliberative process driven by agencies and law enforcement professionals.’” The eventual goal, said Short, was to put American workers first and “modernize” the current immigration system.

According to The Hill, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) went ballistic:

“We told the President at our meeting that we were open to reasonable border security measures alongside the DREAM Act, but this list goes so far beyond what is reasonable. This proposal fails to represent any attempt at compromise," Schumer and Pelosi added.”

What? President Trump not willing to compromise?

The Art of the Deal

But what about negotiate? By setting a high bar for lawmakers, Trump is giving it his best shot and will likely take what he can ultimately slip by a 60-vote majority in the Senate. Good negotiators start high and then – if they must – slowly, by increment, come to a place of compromise. Trump knows some immigration reform with teeth in it is better than none.

Even without these measures immigration is down – way down – since President Trump took office. Month by month since his inauguration, illegal border crossings have dropped. In May, then Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said that the number of illegals who were either taken into custody or otherwise stopped from entering the U.S. was reduced by 15,780 – a thousand more than in March of this year, according to USA TODAY. And the numbers for March were the lowest in almost two decades.

One way or another word of this is going to get around Mexico as well as Central America. And that is precisely what the president – and the people who elected him – hope to accomplish, with or without a wall.