Q&A – Can President Trump’s Illegal Immigration Policies Be Made Permanent? - Driven By Braman Motorcars
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s Entry: Today’s note was submitted via Talkback – asking if it’s possible for President Trump’s policies to combat illegal immigration may be made permanent.
Bottom Line: The answer to your question is yes, President Trump’s policies addressing illegal immigration may be made permanent...in fact some already have. There are three tiers to President Trump’s immigration policy – one for each branch of government. President Trump has an executive strategy, a legislative strategy, and a legal strategy. All hold the potential to produce permanent results. In fact, multiple aspects of his immigration agenda have already been made permanent during his first four months back on the job. Let’s break each of them down.
Executive strategy: As of today, 13 of President Trump’s executive orders have been aimed at addressing illegal immigration. The reason for using so many different orders addressing the big picture issue of combating illegal immigration, plays into the legal strategy – more on that in a moment.
Executive orders are the most potentially temporary form of policy as a future administration may erase the previous president’s policy with a stroke of a pen (just as we saw Joe Biden do after Trump’s first term). That doesn’t mean permanent policy can’t be achieved through executive orders. One of these orders has already begun to produce permanent results – the resumption of the construction of the southern border wall. The wall that President Trump had built through executive orders in his first administration still stands today, and whatever is built during this administration will continue to stand after he’s no longer president. If congress funds President Trump’s plan through the BBB, that’s currently being worked on, Trump will be able to finish The Wall during his administration... That takes us to the...
Legal Strategy: By diversifying his illegal immigration orders, with each focused in a specific area addressing illegal immigration policies, he helped to ensure that a single nationwide stay of an executive order wouldn’t block his agenda. This was a strategy he learned during his first term when he eventually won in the courts on his “Remain in Mexico” asylum policy in addition to the construction of the border wall. As of today, only two of his 13 orders have been completely blocked. When President Trump wins on immigration issues in the courts, it opens the opportunity for permanent outcomes to be achieved without resistance in the future. That’s especially true if the Supreme Court sides with President Trump on birthright citizenship in a case that will be heard May 15th.
Legislative Strategy: The most permanent of any policy is law. The first law of Trump’s second administration was an illegal immigration law, The Laken Riley Act. The law achieved the following...
- Requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain certain non-U.S. nationals (aliens under federal law) who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. The law also authorizes states to sue the federal government for decisions or alleged failures related to immigration enforcement.
- DHS must detain an individual who (1) is unlawfully present in the United States or did not possess the necessary documents when applying for admission; and (2) has been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or admits to having committed acts that constitute the essential elements of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.
- Authorizes state governments to sue for injunctive relief over certain immigration-related decisions or alleged failures by the federal government if the decision or failure caused the state or its residents harm, including financial harm of more than $100. Specifically, the state government may sue the federal government over a: decision to release a non-U.S. national from custody; failure to fulfill requirements relating to inspecting individuals seeking admission into the United States, including requirements related to asylum interviews; failure to fulfill a requirement to stop issuing visas to nationals of a country that unreasonably denies or delays acceptance of nationals of that country; violation of limitations on immigration parole, such as the requirement that parole be granted only on a case-by-case basis; or failure to detain an individual who has been ordered removed from the United States.
As mentioned, the current BBB budget plan would also provide funding for President Trump’s ICE detention and deportation plans and completion of the southern border wall. It’s also possible that following litigation in the courts, and after the budget deal has been achieved, that the Trump administration and congress will come together seeking to pass some of the president’s eo’s into law.