Trump will sign the border wall order today. Why are we shocked?
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco (4 minute read) 
It’s what he talked about almost every day for 18 months, it’s what got the most applause at his campaign events (along with the “Mexico will pay for it” shtick), it’s what every news outlet in the country has been reporting since yesterday afternoon. I’m surprised it took him five days to do it. Donald Trump will sign an executive order to begin the process of building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The New York Times put an interesting twist on the story:
“Trump will sign the executive order for the wall . . . as Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, arrives in Washington to prepare for the visit of President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico. Mr. Peña Nieto will be among the first foreign leaders to meet the new president at the end of the month.”
So there’s that.
[pullquote]The president will visit the Homeland Security office today where he’ll sign something and say something – it’s the “say something” that usually gets the most press.[/pullquote]The only question is whether he’ll sign the order at the Homeland Security office or at the Oval Office.
The president will visit the Homeland Security office today where he’ll sign something and say something – it’s the “say something” that usually gets the most press because his utterances with cameras clicking and devices recording have been increasingly outrageous. I’m at a loss as to how he’ll out-do his “millions of illegals stealing the popular vote” statement from this week, but I have an increasing faith that he’ll somehow manage to one-up his latest Tweet or soundbite.
The Washington Post reports that the president “will also potentially bar for 30 days the issuance of U.S. visas to people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — all Muslim-majority countries — until new visa procedures are developed.”
And, “he is expected to sign the orders relating to . . . ‘sanctuary cities.’ The effort to crack down on these localities will resonate with the Republican base, which has long criticized local officials who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.”
So it’ll be a full day of signing orders and visiting top security buildings and reporting on what he says.
What he’s not doing is also news.
Right wing media is in a huff over Trump’s failure to stop Homeland Security from printing work permits for DREAMers. They want him to deliver on his promise to deport millions of undocumented workers, including those who were brought to the U.S. as children – the DREAMers covered under DACA.
The reports I’ve read say that the immigration hardline right is nervous that he won’t act. Their logic is that by stopping Obama’s DREAMer executive order he’ll have a bargaining chip to use on immigration policy negotiations.
The idea is that Trump can stop the DACA work permits until Congress funds the border wall, or he can use the permits as leverage to force employers to comply with E-Verify or end the issuance of green cards to the extended family of immigrants.
So far he’s been vague about that.
It could be that he’s biding his time . . .
. . . waiting for congress to act.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin have re-introduced the BRIDGE Act.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]CNN Money says Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin have re-introduced the BRIDGE Act that “calls for the temporary protection of DREAMers from deportation. Those who would be protected must meet criteria that is similar to those established under DACA, including that they must have arrived in the U.S. before their 16th birthday and have lived continuously within the country since June 15, 2007.”
So it’s Obama’s executive order, but in legislative form. It doesn’t provide a path to citizenship and expires after three years.
It’s a strategic waiting game because it gives the president cover with the right wing, it separates him from controversy and makes him look good in the process. And we know he likes to look good.
Political observers say there aren’t enough Republican votes for it to pass, and they say a more likely scenario is that Trump will move to repeal DACA and say that DREAMers are not his priority.
On all counts regarding immigration it’s not what the president will do, but how he’ll do it.
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[Photo courtesy of C-SPAN]
