Kiara Ramirez
AP Government and Politics
Current Events Post Reporter
2/2 Kiara Ramirez On Trump’s Proposal for Immigration
SUMMARY:
Making an effective and fair policy for immigration has been a great struggle when it comes to American government. Still to this day, the issue on immigration has not been able to be resolved making it a source for a greater divide between Republicans and Democrats, disputes between government officials, and most recently the shutdown of the federal government. However, President Donald Trump has stepped in and made a proposal for the issue at hand, in which he believes will be a, “down-the-middle compromise,” between both parties and fair legislation for those wanting to gain citizenship in America. Yet, this is far from reality because due to Trump’s new immigration plan, he has pushed the two sides even further apart leaving the Democrats to settle for policies that they do not advocate for.
Throughout the course of the past few weeks, Trump has cracked down on the immigration promising to form concrete legislation by proposing to create a path to citizenship for an estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants that would have been eligible for former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). With that being said, citizenship will not be made easy seeing as Trump has called for legislation that will take roughly ten to twelve years for immigrants to accomplish.
In exchange for DACA, the Trump administration first, wants to cover the cost for the Mexican border wall which will be a rough estimate of $25 billion dollars, that will be going in as an investment for border infrastructure and technology as well as for additional funds for more personnel.
The proposal also calls for changes to the legal immigration system where the White House plans to eliminate the visa lottery system also known as the, “green card lottery” in which the country provides immigrants with United States Permanent Resident Cards. The plan for this will be to end all visa lottery as well to have all visas reallocated. However, the elimination of this system that has been established under the The Immigration Act of 1990 and the Diversity Visa (DV) program will no longer make it possible for the governmental distribution of about 50,000 immigrant visas annually or the diversification of the immigrant population in the United States.
The immigration deal newly turned memo, additionally outlines for the movement to cut all “chain migrations” which will result in a drastic cut of legal immigrants coming into the U.S. each year by ending all family-based visas that go beyond immediate family such as, spouses and minor children. It is also said that this change will allow everyone in the backlog to have their applications for a visa considered.
Lastly, there will be an overall closing of all “Legal Loopholes” which will result in a vast increase as well as change of enforcement powers. This is significant considering that this will now facilitate the deportation of more people from the United States.
While Trump feels like this proposal has taken steps to create bipartisan legislation and and overall compromise, Democrats are feeling the pressure to bargain DACA for immigration policies that they do not agree with at all. On the other hand, it seem like Conservative Republicans are in agreeance with the benefits that come from securing the border, and adjusting overdue immigration problems. Although, the issue at hand has been going in a back and forth motion between both parties, this new immigration deal is presumed to be the piece of legislation the will be resolving matters in the meantime.
NEWS ARTICLES:
This article provides an informative overview of the most recent news released as soon as Feb. 1st, surrounding the proposal for immigration by Donald Trump. The New York Times give insight towards how the legislation will be going through both houses of Congress. The article additionally expresses how time is running out for Democrats to come to their final resort which is sacrificing their core ideologies on immigration in order to gain security for those under DACA.
This news source identifies the overwhelming support Trump has been receiving from conservatives as a result of his most recent immigration plan. This article give insight as to why conservatives recognize the benefits that come with passing such legislation that will result in, “securing our border and helping to fix these long-term problems.” The article also provides some brief information on what the overall plan is the phase-out date of DACA.
This article provides with a lot of recount of the State of the Union Address given by Trump on Tuesday, Jan 31st, 2018. This Atlantic news article analyzed the “effort” Trump put into giving an, “optimistic, heartfelt, and bipartisan,” speech that covered the topics of immigrations. The article additionally laid out the “four pillars” of this proposal which in other words are the outcomes of passing this legislation.
This article similar to the first news sources, recaps the events of Thursday in which Trump puts both pressure on the Democrats and urges the Congressional Republicans to compromise on the immigration bill. The article also covers the challenges of passing such a bill in the Senate because according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), $2.5 billion is not a negotiation Democrats are willing to make.
This article by the NPR did a really good job of breaking down the proposal made by Trump. The reader is given a lot of information matin about what will be done with DACA if this bill is passed and what will be also happening in exchange for creating path for 1.8 million immigrants to seek citizenship. This article also provides a full outline memo titled, “The White Framework on Immigration” which clearly lies out the priorities of the legislation the will be passed.
This article provided by CNN news list out five key things surrounding Trump and immigration as well as why they matter. This document gave a good source of factual evidence as well as a thorough analysis about the importance of this proposal. This article really broke down the impact that passing this proposal will have on the lives of many across the country and worldwide.
This source has includes a short three minute news coverage as well as an article that gave information about what the deal made by Donald Trump consist of as well as how Democrats are feeling towards it. In the video component, the news anchors do a really good job of simplifying the overall proposal on legislation and the effect it will have on immigrants. On the written article components of this news source, it is provided to the reader about how Democrats have a passionate disliking towards this because there is a strong disagreeance on the fact that legal immigration will be cut in half with no sort of justification.
This article covers the aftermath of the Trump proposal. This proposal, which Trump hoped would accomplish some sort of bipartisan compromise has done nothing but the opposite. According to this source, the changes to immigration has created an even bigger divide between. As a result, both parties have not been able to come to a conclusion because no one is willing to compromise.
CONNECTIONS TO AP GOV:
This current issue surrounding Trump’s call for a new legislation about immigration connects back to AP Government in many ways. First, this issue relates back to the challenges that the overall government has faced for a very long time when it comes to dealing with legislation that has to with immigration. In the past and until very recently, immigration in America has been an issue that keeps on being put aside and year, after year, the problem is ignored which is what led to Obama’s executive order that established the DACA program in the first place. Now that Trump and his administration have threatened and successfully dismantled Obama’s Dreamers Act, he has taken this issue under his power as president in order to change immigration policies and cut down on the entry of immigrants into this country. That leads to the second point, which is the power that lies within in the executive branch. Just like Obama had the power to establish executive orders to have an impact on immigrants, their fate now lies in the hands of Trump because as president he has the power to put an end to previously issued executive orders as well as call to action a new way to handle immigration. All of which, is what he is attempting to do with this proposal. Lastly, this all ties back to the government because of the fact that immigration does nothing but ultimately shed light on partisanship and how this is a two sided debate that only seems to go back and forth because while Democrats are faced with only the option of settling, the Republican Party is in benefitting from the fact that they will get to grant to use of billions of dollars to build a wall that will separate families and deport millions of immigrants back to foreign countries.
YOUR ANALYSIS:
In my opinion, Trump’s call to action for changes to immigration policies is completely unreasonable. He is ultimately using the granting of 1.8 billion immigrants into America as a validation to take away visas, eliminate “chain-migration”, build an unnecessary wall and increase the rate of deportation. Even when he says that 1.8 million people will be able to gain citizenship it is not even a definite confirmation due to the fact that it will that most ten to twelve years to obtain citizenship. His legislation is causing all sorts of divisions across this country which we had all worked so hard for to move on from. For instance, the divide in parties has been at a steady increase ever since the beginning of his presidency. However, as of now tension between the Republicans and Democrats are so high that it is merely impossible for both sides to see eye to eye on any issue, let alone immigration. The divide doesn’t end there seeing as to how Trump’s desire to construct a wall between the borders of Mexico and the U.S. as well as the elimination of visas does nothing but tear loved ones apart from each other. In conclusion, although Trump is taking action on an issue that many Presidents or members of Congress have refrained from for a long time, I believe that there are many other ways to handle this situation instead of pitting our country as one side against the other and ripping families apart with no sort of justification.
QUESTIONS TO CLASS:
- Do you agree with Trump’s attempts to pass an, ““optimistic, heartfelt, and bipartisan,” legislation on immigration. If not, which side benefits the most from this? Which side benefits the least?
- What decision do you think the Democrats will come to as a result of Trump’s on immigration? Is there more pressure for them to act now because the phase-out date for DACA is approaching on March 5th, 2018?
- Trump formed his presidential campaign around the fact that as soon as he stepped into office, his first order of business would be to take on the issue of immigration and cut down on it by enforcing strict legislation. However, still to this day there are no clear cut legislations about immigration that have been passed. What do you think this shows about the way that the federal government functions? What are some reasons for as to why it has been such a challenge to pass immigration laws?
2017 POGO 3 BLOG 
Do you agree with Trump’s attempts to pass an, ““optimistic, heartfelt, and bipartisan,” legislation on immigration. If not, which side benefits the most from this? Which side benefits the least?
1) The side that benefits the most is the republicans, as I am sure he has planned. Sadly, another shut down would make the democrats look horrible, and they can’t risk that so they might have to just go with it as fustrated as they might be.
What decision do you think the Democrats will come to as a result of Trump’s on immigration? Is there more pressure for them to act now because the phase-out date for DACA is approaching on March 5th, 2018?
2) I think as mentioned above there is pressure and it comes mostly from both their supporters and republicans. As they want to due right by the men and women who support them but also know that there is a need for a gritted-teeth compromise and no side but trump and his bunch of merry men will be happy.
Trump formed his presidential campaign around the fact that as soon as he stepped into office, his first order of business would be to take on the issue of immigration and cut down on it by enforcing strict legislation. However, still to this day there are no clear cut legislations about immigration that have been passed. What do you think this shows about the way that the federal government functions? What are some reasons for as to why it has been such a challenge to pass immigration laws?
3) This shows that government is not so easily moved by the racist and xenophobic ideals that Trump has, and that hopefully not all will come to pass.
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Overall I disagree with Trump’s attempts, I always support bipartisanship done well but seeing how Trump’s attempts were somewhat responsible for a government and that funding might need to be allocated for a useless project, I can’t support it. Republicans in a way get the most from this with Democrats losing since providing a road to citizenship for those under DACA has some bipartisan support while the wall is heavily partisan. At the same time, I can imagine that many Republicans would rather use the money for the wall for something else. I would like to see it used for something else, Mccain recently spoke of the military not getting enough funds, I disagree with that but I see the money going there as a much better investment.
Democrats are definitely feeling the pressure as they pretty much need to settle this, as another shutdown can simply not happen, it would be political suicide. Democrats would probably focus on working on a plan to help undocumented immigrants gain citizenship. The compromise will probably be funds being dedicated to the wall, because surprisingly Mexico doesn’t want to pay for it.
The fact that he has not been able to make a permeant change in regard to immigration shows how well checks of power against the executive are. It also tells us that immigration is a hot-button issue which is hard to make ground on from either side. Immigration will probably remain a topic that is hard to make ground on for a while.
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I don’t think Trump is truly participating in bipartisanship because a significant chunk of the country still does not the wall. Although his wall has not even started building even though he promised in his campaign in 2016. He should not use the wall as a bargaining chip with the democrats over innocent people who want to enter the country. Lives are being risked for a wall that will not work. The people and cartels who spend millions to find ways across the border will find a way to get past a wall. They already use tunnels to get through the border so I don’t know why anyone would think that a wall above ground would work. I don’t think any deals with Trump are truly bipartisanship because they will always lean to his hardliner republican policy.
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I think the Democrats will have to act soon on Trump’s proposed legislation because of the phase out date for DACA. I think they will be pressured into this agreement because of the fact that they strongly want DACA and if they do not agree now, it might be too late to come up with a compromise by March 5th. The Republicans also put them in sort of a blame mode for shutting down the government because they gave the Democrats a seemingly fair legislation, but the Democrats did not agree with it. This adds even more pressure for Democrats because they want to sign with a legislation for the government to be running properly again. Trump supporters also put pressure on the Democrats, as Allyson had said. They direct the attention towards the “stubborn Democrats”, saying they will only approve a legislation if it benefits the Democratic party more than the Republicans. The pressure on the Democrats is enough to make them agree to Trump’s legislation. I think they will have to do this in order to keep DACA.
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Trump’s attempt to pass this kind of legislation on immigration sounds good as a generalization but it is obvious that his intentions are different. Those who are already citizens and permanent residents have the advantage because they are sure of their stance in this country. On the other hand, those who are under programs like DACA and those who applied for lottery visas for example are at risk constantly. I believe that unfortunately, the Democrats will act with Trump and take his word for it because they need to pass some immigration laws. Although it isn’t ideal, Democrats will most likely go along with this legislation and make some subtle changes over a period of time, if there are any bills written up. Trump is continuing his word that he would focus on immigration as part of his campaign but he is almost a year into his presidency and all he has done for immigration is make it worse. This shows that the federal government is very radical in words but it is not so true in action. They claim so many things about immigration but are afraid to even touch the subjects and bills that might address the legalities. It is challenging to pass laws about immigration especially when the government is in a gridlock or even when the same party controls everything because of the issues each party focuses on and holds as their platform. Overall, I don’t believe that Trump is actually going to go through full force with his immigration plan. If he does, he might only implement a few pieces of the system.
Kathryn C.
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I disagree with Trump’s attempts to pass an, “optimistic, heartfelt, and bipartisan,” legislation on immigration. While I support bipartisanship, I don’t believe this exemplifies it. Getting citizenship for the people under DACA has bipartisan support, so we need to do a better job providing citizenship. I don’t really think either side benefits much from this, but the Republicans probably gain the most from this while the Democrats lose. Kiara states that¨In exchange for DACA, the Trump administration first, wants to cover the cost for the Mexican border wall which will be a rough estimate of $25 billion dollars.¨ Many Republicans would rather use the money that Trump wants to set aside for the wall for something more useful, like on the defense budget. While one might argue that there is plenty of funding for that, and they may have a point, I’m sure a lot of Republicans would think it is smarter to spend money on the military as opposed to a wall. $25 billion can be divided into many ways in order to actually improve the country. Building a wall is a waste of money, and does not help our country. There is more pressure on the democrats to act now because the phase-out date for DACA is approaching. It is no surprise that they want to help undocumented immigrants become citizens, so they will probably work on a plan to help undocumented immigrants gain citizenship. It is so hard to pass immigration laws because the two parties are in a gridlock. So far, there have not been much compromises taking place so the two sides remain distant.
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The side that clearly benefits the most is republicans. I agree that trump is using the granting of 1.8 billion immigrants into America as a validation to take away visas, eliminate “chain-migration”. Immigration has been an unresolved issue in America that needs to be dealt with thoroughly, most Americans agree that the Dreamers should be protected however new legislation has not shown that. Trump keeps promising a pathway for the undocumented immigrants that would have been eligible for former President Obama’s DACA but has yet to come up with a concrete plan. time is definitely running out for Democrats to come to their final resolution which is sacrificing their main ideologies on immigration in order to gain security for those under DACA. However many conservatives seem to be supporting Trump on his plan, they believe that while building this wall he is securing the ‘national safety’ of America. More than a million people are on the verge of losing protections that keep them from getting kicked out of the United States unless Congress and the President can agree on a solution. the Trump administration is already reshaping the system in more subtle ways: denying more visas, tinkering with the number of visas it makes available and redefining the qualifications to get them — all things it can do without lawmakers’ help. People’s lives have been positively changed by DACA, many of whom are minors who have fled violence in their home countries. Trump states that he intends to create bipartisan, heartfelt legislation towards the dreamers however it has shown that it is not his true intentions.
Rebecca
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While I do believe that bipartisanship is the direction that the government should always be considering, the deal and propositions that Trump makes just seem like they’re more directed towards what he envisions rather than what the Democratic party and even some moderate Republicans may think. The side that benefits the most out of this would definitely be the Republican party as the components of this deal is heavily favored towards removing people rather than letting people in. Getting rid of the raffle system for Visa’s and green cards makes sense, since the system shouldn’t be a raffle system in the first place, and should be more of an organized and specific case that is directed towards specific circumstances. It also seems very unreasonable to agree on a $25 billion wall for a compensation DACA that will require the people who are protected under it to take 10-12 years when it just seems much more easier to get them in through a citizenship test.
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I support the fact that he was aiming to make a “optimistic, heartfelt, and bipartisan“ legislation on immigration, however, I don’t agree with most of the terms within the actual proposal. I don’t believe that they process should take ten to twelve years for people who were expecting to have a protected status within a couple months. We have to consider the fact that people put themselves on the line and went through the long application process and paid the fee just to apply for the DACA program, just to have that taken away from them. As many as 983 undocumented people could lose their protected status everyday https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/04/politics/daca-dreamers-immigration-program/index.html. Trump’s proposal for the new immigration plan should speed up the process for those who were eligible for DACA. I also don’t agree with his plan to cover the costs of the Mexican wall border as well. $25 billion on a wall that won’t completely stop people from entering the country illegally is simply too much. There definitely is more pressure for democrats to act now because they’re the ones that always defended and supported the program.
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