The huge raids scheduled to begin in cities across America by immigration authorities and ICE were postponed yesterday by Donald Trump, ostensibly “at the request of Democrats,” as the President tweeted yesterday afternoon:
At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2019
Of course, viewed through the lens of literally everything Trump has ever done as President, doing something out of the goodness of his heart to accommodate the opposition party seems completely out of character. So much so, in fact, that many believe his decision was based instead on the Vice President’s upcoming “Latinos for Trump” campaign set to begin shortly in one of the biggest cities on the list of raid targets, Miami.
Thomas Wenski, the Archbishop of Miami told PBSÂ Newshour that the postponement would provide a “reprieve [but] not a solution,” and that he had no doubt that Trump’s decision may have been largely based on how bad it would have looked before an outreach campaign aimed squarely at the community his administration is targeting with the raids.
Then Sunday morning, Trump continued the threatening, taunting stance he’d struck the day before:
I want to give the Democrats every last chance to quickly negotiate simple changes to Asylum and Loopholes. This will fix the Southern Border, together with the help that Mexico is now giving us. Probably won’t happen, but worth a try. Two weeks and big Deportation begins!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2019
It’s not really a secret that Trump doesn’t want to “give the Democrats a chance” to do anything but comply with exactly what he wants to see happen at the border. When he says “probably won’t happen,” what he’s doubting isn’t that Democrats will come to the table with something, it’s that he doubts they’ll do what he wants — fund the border wall completely and without delay.
If that’s what he’s aiming for, he can forget “probably.” That’s NEVER going to happen.
Featured image via screen capture
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