America is currently facing a massive border crisis, and House Democrats along with seven Republicans responded to it Tuesday evening by passing an amnesty bill with absolutely no border security money or asylum system reforms. The final vote was 237-187.

House Resolution 6, or the “American Dream and Promise Act of 2019,” would extend amnesty to at least 2.5 million illegal immigrants who were either brought to the U.S. as minors or have been on “Temporary Protected Status.” That number is well beyond the estimated 700,000 to 800,000 total DACA recipients. This would take the form of green card status with a path to citizenship.

“The Dream, and now Dream and Promise Act, is urgent for our country,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at the bill’s introduction in March, before trying to sell the legislation under a few lines from a Ronald Reagan speech.

However, critics point out that the legislation would do absolutely nothing to address the border enforcement problems and legal loopholes that created the current crisis in the first place.

Conservative Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) took to social media Tuesday to say the bill would cost the American taxpayer $34.6 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, while providing “$0 (ZERO) dollars for border security” and no asylum reforms.

“What is it?” Roy asked rhetorically. “A complete dereliction of our constitutional duty to #SecureTheBorder and address the ongoing humanitarian crisis at our southern border.”

Rep. Chip Roy@RepChip Roy – 4 June 2019
This week the House will vote on H.R. 6, otherwise known as the #DreamAct

What is it? A complete dereliction of our constitutional duty to #SecureThe Border and address the ongoing humanitarian crisis at our southern border.

Rep. Chip Roy@RepChip Roy – 4 June 2019
What does it do?  Costs $34.6 billion, according to @UBCBO, while providing $0 (ZERO) dollars for border security.  It does not close immigration loopholes, #FixOurBrokenAsylum laws, and constitutes a 2.7 million + amnesty deal.

Indeed, according to a summary sheet from House Judiciary Committee Republicans, the total cost of the bill comes from the combined estimated costs of the two bills that make up the legislation in its current form.

But that’s not all. The summary also explains that “time constraints” kept the CBO from being able to calculate the potential public cost of aliens who could seek citizenship by violating the terms of their visas and then become eligible for green cards: “That cost is unknown.”

Other critics say that the bill’s barriers against applicants with criminal histories are too low.

Briefing materials about the bill from the office of Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) say that “applicants with several misdemeanor convictions can obtain a green card, even if the misdemeanors were violent and resulted in death or bodily injury.”

The bill’s language bars illegal immigrants who have been convicted of felonies or three separate misdemeanors involving total jail time over 90 days from getting green cards. It also disqualifies those who have been convicted of a “crime of moral turpitude” and those convicted of domestic violence.

However, the bill bars DHS from using state and federal gang databases as the determining factor in disqualifying potential beneficiaries.

“The Democrats are making us consider a bill that will worsen — give a green light — to the border crisis, incentivizing more people to cross our borders illegally in hopes of getting a piece of the amnesty pie,” House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins (R-Ga.) said on the House floor Tuesday. “No doubt at this very minute, the smuggling cartels are getting the word out … Congress is going to legalize millions, just get there.”

Meanwhile, the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security says that the current level of migrants in custody is “beyond sustainable capacity” while this year has seen record levels of border apprehensions.

The post House responds to border crisis by passing a mass amnesty bill with zero border security funding first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

President Trump on Dec. 14 tweeted that White House budget director Mick Mulvaney would become acting chief of staff. Photo by Monica Akhtar — The Washington Post

The post Trump will secure border ‘with or without Congress,’ Mulvaney says first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Trump and his aides are exuding confidence over his prime-time address to Congress on Tuesday, even amid still-low approval ratings and the prospect of Russia testimony before Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in the wake of revelations that Trump wanted to fire Mueller back in June.

“Our economy is better than it has been in many decades,” Trump tweeted Sunday in what looked like a preview of his speech. “Businesses are coming back to America like never before … Unemployment is nearing record lows. We are on the right track!”

Also offering a State of the Union teaser during last week’s visit to a global economic conference in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said: “The world is witnessing the resurgence of a strong and prosperous America.”

A year and a week after being sworn into office, Trump offers a state of the union while facing a number of pivotal events that could affect his presidency. They include:

RUSSIA TESTIMONY

Attorneys for Trump and Mueller are negotiating a possible interview of the president, a sign that at least part of the special counsel’s investigation is approaching an end.

Mueller’s team is probing any links between Trump’s campaign and Russians who sought to influence the 2016 presidential election via stolen emails and fake news about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Mueller is also looking into claims that Trump might have sought to obstruct the investigation through actions that included the May dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, and perhaps a planned dismissal of Mueller himself.

As Trump spoke with economic leaders in Davos, The New York Times reported that Trump actually ordered Mueller’s firing in June, but backed off only after White House Counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign over the move.

Trump derided the story as “fake news,” but officials familiar with the investigation told USA TODAY the president discussed firing Mueller fired back in June, but attorneys and aides talked him out of it.

Since then, they said, the president has cooperated with the special counsel’s office. While aides say Trump has is frustrated over the Russia investigation, he and they remain confident it will end soon and show he engaged in no wrongdoing.

During an impromptu Q-and-A with reporters at the White House last week, Trump said he is looking forward to testifying and willing to do so under oath.

His lawyers, however, said the interview remains subject to negotiations on the circumstances of the testimony, including time limits and areas of questioning as well as whether the interview would be conducted under oath.

Trump is not expected to address the Russia probe during his State of the Union, but other aspects of the probe are likely to come up.

ANOTHER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?

Congress ended a three-day shutdown a week ago by passing a new temporary spending plan, but it expires on Feb. 8, just a week from Thursday.

Budget negotiations involving the White House and congressional Republicans and Democrats center on the same issue that led to the first shutdown, immigration.

IMMIGRATION TALKS

While Trump spoke in Davos, his aides unveiled an immigration plan calling for tighter security provisions at the border, including a $25 billion trust fund for his long-advocated wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Trump administration is also seeking to meet Democratic demands by reviving the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and o block deportation of “DREAMers,” young people brought into the United States illegally by their parents.

The administration’s proposed plan includes a path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million people who qualify under DACA, a provision drawing catcalls from conservative Republicans who say it amounts of amnesty for law breakers.

Some Democrats, meanwhile, said the plan’s call to restrict family-based migration and other programs are designed to restrict currently legal immigration, especially for Hispanics. “They are part of the Trump administration’s unmistakable campaign to make America white again,” said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

The post Confident Trump prepares for State of the Union (while dealing with Russia, immigration) first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) talk to reporters as they exit a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Party leaders and rank-and-file senators spent all day Sunday haggling over a deal to reopen the government. But Washington’s painful shutdown will nonetheless drag into Day Three.

Shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the chamber would vote on a plan at noon Monday to fund the government through Feb. 8. In an attempted concession to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, McConnell said he would take up legislation to protect some young immigrants from deportation if a deal to address their status is not reached by the time funding expires in early February.

Schumer said further negotiations were needed and spurned McConnell’s request, pushing a vote until Monday, when hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed.

“Talks will continue, but we have yet to reach an agreement on a path forward that would be acceptable for both sides,” Schumer said.

The vote Monday is expected to fail absent further progress between the two party leaders before then.

Senate Republicans will have a conference meeting at 11 a.m. Monday to discuss the state of play, aides said.

The late-night exchange capped a furious round of negotiations Sunday between Schumer and McConnell, as well as a group of deal-making senators desperate to reopen the shuttered government. Senators from both parties took a proposal to the party leaders after the centrists met for 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon.

Their proposal would reopen the government through Feb. 8 and have McConnell commit on the Senate floor to holding an immigration vote before that date — a commitment that McConnell approached but did not definitively agree to, in part because Republicans worry they could not complete an immigration debate before the next funding deadline.

Keeping the shutdown going given McConnell’s stated goal of an immigration vote would be “counterproductive,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) as the Senate adjourned for the night. As for Democrats’ push for a more firm immigration commitment from the GOP leader, Graham suggested McConnell’s Sunday night statement would have to suffice: “I assume if we get a deal, it will be more formal.”

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who along with Graham is meeting with roughly 20 senators in both parties, said he hoped the group would meet again.

After not speaking on Saturday, McConnell and Schumer met privately for more than 30 minutes on Sunday. Schumer, however, did not talk to the president, an aide said.

Flake said the Senate needs to move independently of the White House at this point to resolve the confrontation that’s produced the first shutdown in more than four years.

“The important thing is breaking with the White House on this and not relying on the White House to give its approval,” Flake said.

Despite his public thaw after two days of lashing Democrats, it remains to be seen whether McConnell can provide enough reassurance to Democrats to win their votes. Some Democrats said they need to know the House would take action on an immigration bill, too.

“We have to have in our own mind some way to ensure that the House feels a need to bring up the issue as well,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

The centrists are eager to end the brinkmanship that has erupted at the one-year mark of Donald Trump’s presidency. Democrats insist that any funding legislation extend Obama-era protections for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, while Republicans have said they won’t negotiate on immigration until the government reopens.

The group of roughly 20 moderates includes Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Flake, Graham, Mark Warner (D-Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

Some liberals are still wary. They fear that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) could repeat the exercise of 2013, when the Senate passed an immigration bill and the House didn’t take it up.

“It depends on whether it’s part of a must-pass bill. That is my strong preference. The goal is to have the [DREAM] Act passed,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in an interview. “I have no confidence, zero, in Paul Ryan bringing that bill to the floor.”

Republican leaders are also skeptical. They believe committing to an immigration vote would just throw Democrats a lifeline and prefer to negotiate on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program only after the government reopens.

“Does that mean if we have an agreement by [Feb.] 15 that that’s not good enough?” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said of the plan to hold an immigration vote by Feb. 8. “I just think people are nervous because they shut down the government and are looking for face-saving.”

Still, McConnell listened to the presentation by a group of GOP senators to allow such a vote by Feb. 8. He thanked those Republicans on the floor Sunday evening.

So far, House Republican leaders have rejected the idea of committing to holding an immigration vote on the House floor and are refusing to negotiate on anything beyond a three-week continuing resolution. Ryan said Sunday the House will accept a short-term bill through Feb. 8 but will commit only to an immigration bill “that the president supports to fix this problem.”

Though negotiations in the Senate gained some traction, both parties continued to execute their public relations strategies. Democrats blasted Trump, blaming him for walking away from an immigration deal with Schumer on Friday that they say could have prevented the shutdown.

“How can you negotiate with the president under those circumstances where he agrees face-to-face to move forward with a certain path and then within two hours calls back and pulls the plug?” Durbin said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

Schumer offered Trump support for the border wall in exchange for a deal to protect the nearly 700,000 so-called Dreamers facing deportation. But since then, Republicans and Democrats have publicly sparred over whether Schumer was offering full funding for the wall or not.

Republicans, meanwhile, accused Democrats of taking “hostages” in order to strong-arm the GOP into an immigration deal that has eluded Congress for years.

“This is the Democrats trying to hold our military hostage for an issue that has been with us for decades,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said on ABC. “I think we need to resolve it — the president wants to resolve it — but you don’t do that in the middle of a shutdown.”

But even Republicans seemed uncomfortable defending a Trump campaign ad saying Democratic leaders would be “complicit” in murders committed by undocumented immigrants during the shutdown. Republican leaders know they will need Democratic cooperation to break the shutdown logjam.

“I don’t know if that’s necessarily productive,” Ryan said of the Trump ad.

So far, Trump has not called for a meeting with the “Big Four” congressional leaders — McConnell, Schumer, Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — and Republicans on the Sunday news shows gave no indication he would do so. But White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said Trump has been in touch with GOP leaders throughout the weekend.

“The president has been involved,” Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Yesterday he was speaking to Leader McConnell, Leader Ryan. He also spoke to Kevin McCarthy.”

John Bresnahan and Rachael Bade contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/21/government-shutdown-2018-trump-senate-354113

The post Senate to vote Monday on plan to reopen government first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

In an extremely rare move, he allowed cameras to roll during a bipartisan meeting at the White House as lawmakers tried to hammer out a deal on immigration reform.

“I think everyone agrees we have to have border security. I don’t think anyone here would say no,” Trump said.

It was an extraordinary scene, President Trump let the American people be a fly on the wall for a gathering that was no mere photo-op.

Senators and congress-members sat down to do some real negotiating to let so-called creamers — young people brought here illegally as children — stay.

“I feel having the democrats in with us is absolutely vital because this should be a bill of love. Truly it should be a bill of love, we can do that,” the president said.

“I don’t know if the Republican and Democratic party can define love, but I think what we can do is do what the American people want us to do. Sixty-two percent of Trump voters support a pathway to citizenship if you have strong borders. You have created an opportunity here Mr. President, and you need to close the deal,” Senator Lindsey Graham said.

The meeting lasted more than an hour and during several free-wheeling exchanges, both sides laid their cards on the table and appeared ready to compromise.

“I don’t know how you would feel about this, but I’d like to ask the question. What about a clean DACA bill now, with a commitment that we go into comprehensive immigration reform procedure,” Senator Diane Feinstein said.

“I think that’s basically what Dick is saying. We’re gonna come out with DACA. We’re gonna do DACA and then we can start immediately phase two,” Trump replied.

“Mr. President, you need to be clear though, Sen. Feinstein is asking here, when you talk about just DACA, we don’t want to be back here two years later. You have to have security as the secretary would tell you,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy said.

“I think what we’re all saying is, we’ll do DACA and we can certainly start comprehensive immigration reform the following afternoon. We’ll take an hour off and then we’ll start,” he said.

The White House said after the meeting that lawmakers had agreed to narrow the scope of the negotiations to four areas; DACA, border security, family-based chain migration, and the visa lottery.

Lawmakers face a March 5 deadline to address the end of the DACA program.

Source: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/01/09/daca-deadline/

The post Trump Meets With Lawmakers As DACA Deadline Approaches first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

One moment, Trump is presenting his impregnable political base with its biggest test yet as he edges toward a deal with Democrats on immigration — one that will test whether he or outraged conservative pundits have the best fix on the loyalties of his supporters.

The next, he’s proving how polarizing, and sometimes detrimental to his own fortunes he can be, reigniting the controversy over his response to neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, insisting that there were “bad dudes” on both sides.

If that was not enough for one frenetic day on Thursday, The New York Times reported that Trump had upbraided his Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling him “an idiot” and disloyal, over his handling of allegations of collusion between the President’s campaign aides and Russia.

Trump’s signature ability to place himself at the center of multiple, simultaneous political storms is on display as he reaches the end of a momentous week that started with Hurricane Irma tearing a trail of destruction across Florida, for a while eclipsing even Trump’s gargantuan political personality and capacity to dominate the news.

The President’s attempt to broker a deal with Democrats to allow hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented migrants to stay in the US sparked a political explosion and predictions he will rupture his visceral connection with his most faithful supporters on an issue that helped electrify his campaign.

But there are many reasons to believe that despite initial wave of outrage about his dinner conversation with top Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, Trump will not inevitably pay a heavy political price even if he goes ahead and reverses a core campaign promise.

First, the rush by both the White House and Democrats to clarify the terms of what is being discussed have tempered initial interpretations that the President simply caved on an issue that was integral to his political appeal in the election — less than two weeks after ending the DACA program that protected the 800,000 migrants brought to the US as children.

In a series tweets and comments to reporters, Trump repeatedly sought to explain himself to his supporters amid a flurry of criticism from prominent celebrity conservatives after the Democrats had initially indicated that a deal would be made to twin protection for DACA recipients in return for border security “excluding the wall.”

“No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Later, his campaign blasted out an email from the President.

“There’s been a lot of noise today and a lot of rumors. Let me set the record straight in the simplest language possible…

“…WE WILL BUILD A WALL (NOT A FENCE) ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO HELP STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND KEEP AMERICA SAFE.”

The pushback operation was a sign that the President appreciates the hypersensitivity of any potential deal on immigration among his core voters. After all, during his campaign, he branded DACA an illegal “executive amnesty.”

Room to maneuver
But at the same time, Trump’s room to maneuver with his base may also be wider than some pundits assume.

Firstly, given Trump’s vehement pronouncements on immigration ever since he sprung onto the political stage, he has the kind of credibility with arch conservatives that more moderate Republicans — like Sen. Marco Rubio for instance — have lacked and that could be deployed in a kind of “Nixon goes to China” moment to compromise with Democrats.

Those covered by DACA, who in many cases know no other home than the United States, are also in many cases the most sympathetic undocumented migrants to public opinion.

Trump has frequently slammed other classes of undocumented migrants — including some in MS-13 gangs as “animals” and notoriously accused Mexico of sending criminals and rapists to the US in his campaign announcement speech.

But he has made a special case for those affected by his decision to cancel DACA.

“Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!…..,”Trump tweeted.

The President has also created significant political capital for himself among his core supporters in his eight months in power. By pardoning former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted of contempt in a racial profiling case, signing an executive order to cut funds for sanctuary cities and introducing a travel ban on certain Muslim countries, Trump has made it unlikely that any significant political challenger can get to the right of him on immigration.

Arpaio, a hero to many voters for whom immigration is a driving issue, offered the President some political cover on the DACA issue Thursday, showing the political value of a pardon that alienated many more moderate voters.

“Whatever final policy he supports, I’ll also support. He’s very intelligent. He cuts deals,” Arpaio said, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Conservative callers to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show on Thursday, meanwhile, appeared to be reacting with less outrage to Trump’s meeting with Schumer and Pelosi than some conservative opinion leaders.

Some suggested that the media was misinterpreting Trump’s intentions. Others believed that the President was simply running rings around the top Democrats with masterful strategy. Some said that Trump was only working with Democrats because he had been let down by establishment Republicans — for example, in the failure to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Limbaugh told his listeners that he could not recall any calls from a “legitimate Trumpist” who felt betrayed by the President’s bipartisan outreach in recent days.

“Their faith in Trump is total and it is unshakeable, at least as of now, and they are not at all worried about this,” he said.

While recent CNN polls have shown that there has been an erosion of enthusiasm for Trump among Republicans and independents who voted for him, there is no clear evidence that his base is deserting him.

Trump enjoys immense trust among his largely white, working class core of supporters. Many regard him as the only politician who has ever dared to give voice to their grievances and bonded with him over his economic nationalism and “America First” creed.

A wholesale repudiation of that philosophy would likely be needed to splinter the President’s core support.

Some voters, bitterly disappointed with gridlock in Washington turned to Trump, an outsider, because of his professed deal making abilities — another factor that may give him some political running room. And if he can finesse a deal that includes genuine measures to boost border security in a DACA deal, he may spare himself serious political damage.

A Monmouth University poll taken before and after the controversy over his failure to quickly and unequivocally condemn white supremacists after violence in Charlottesville last month found that six in 10 of people who approve of Trump could not think of anything that he could do that would make them disapprove of the job he is doing as President.

Many of Trump’s supporters in conservative media and in Congress have been watching to see if the arrival of John Kelly as White House chief of staff and the departure of other more radical members of Trump’s inner circle would cause him to work to please the Washington establishment he promised to eviscerate.

That has especially been the case since the President jilted Republican congressional leaders and accepted a Democratic deal for a three month extension of the government’s debt ceiling.

The prospect that Trump could do a deal on DACA recipients with Democrats therefore caused massive shockwaves on Thursday.

“The base will leave him. They can’t support him anymore,” said Iowa Rep. Steve King, warning on CNN’s “New Day” that if Trump replaced the DACA program and watered down his plans for the border wall he would smash his political support.

Breitbart News branded Trump “Amnesty Don,” while conservative radio host Laura Ingraham slammed “The Art of the Steal.”

But another well-known Trump supporter, Roger Stone, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that there was little evidence that a potential deal with Democrats will harm Trump since border crossings are down and the administration has increased pressure on sanctuary cities.

However, Stone did say there are many people who wonder whether “our king,” meaning Trump, “has been captured” and now Kelly and the “establishment clique are now governing.”

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/politics/donald-trump-base-support/index.html

The post Banking on his base, Trump charts his own path forward first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.