President Trump has announced that he is going to do “raids” on “illegals,” but will delay it for two weeks:
President Trump is delaying immigration raids that were set to begin this weekend, saying he will give Congress two weeks to make changes to asylum law before dispatching Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents around the country to deport undocumented immigrants.
Immigration rights advocates had been preparing for the planned sweep of recently arrived migrants, which, according to sources familiar with the planned raids, were set to begin as soon as Sunday in 10 cities around the country.
A source familiar with the president’s decision told NPR that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Trump on Friday night and urged him to back off the raids. Pelosi had been sharply critical of the planned raids. She called them heartless and said the president needed “to stop this brutal action which will tear families apart and inject terror into our communities.”
On Saturday, the president announced on Twitter that ICE would hold off on the roundup for two weeks “at the request of Democrats,” writing that if lawmakers in Washington cannot approve changes to asylum law in that time, he will again direct ICE agents to resume the raids.
Sources close to the White House say Democrats are unlikely to accept Trump’s pitch that asylum rules should be tightened.
Both parties are working to pass a border aid package to help deal with the influx of migrants arriving illegally at the border, and a Democratic aide on Capitol Hill noted that the raids could have endangered the deal had they not been put on pause.
The $4.5 billion border and humanitarian supplemental assistance package has been moving along with bipartisan support. Much of the money supports humanitarian assistance and immigration enforcement.
But by asking Congress to address asylum and “loophole problems,” Trump is upping the ante. There is no funding for changes to asylum laws, so Trump’s request faces significant hurdles.
Pelosi on Saturday welcomed the president’s announcement delaying the planned raids. She called for a comprehensive immigration package that includes a path to citizenship for the roughly 11 million people who are in the country illegally.
ICE sent letters in February to more than 2,000 migrants whose cases the Justice Department fast-tracked as a way of sending a deterrent message to families considering crossing the U.S. border illegally.
“If Congress does not change the laws to ensure illegal aliens can be promptly removed at the southern border, there is no alternative but to continuously arrest these fugitive aliens in the interior,” a spokeswoman for ICE said in a statement on Saturday.
In an interview with NPR, Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan said many immigrant families are ignoring requests to turn themselves in.
“So what are our options?” Morgan said. “They’ve had due process, they’ve had access to attorneys, they’ve had access to interpreters. Majority of them don’t even show up. And then when they didn’t show up, they received ordered removal in absentia,” he said. “We have no choice.”
Immigration activists have condemned the raids and implored the Trump administration to call them off. (source, source)
This is an absolute joke and a political show, not only for the language, but for the way that he is conducting it.
Let’s take his words at face value. Assume that Trump really is going to deport thousands of illegals all throughout the country and conduct massive raids. Let’s say it is all true.
Do you really believe that he is going to talk about it in the news and advertise it?
Years ago, I worked in a management position in a factory where a lot of illegal immigrants were employed on the work lines per corporate order. One could always tell if there was (a) a police raid on illegals or (b) if a police raid was going to come, because the workers would disappear in a swarm and not show up for several weeks, at which time they would be “fired” but then would be “re-hired” with new papers, fake names, and fake social security cards.
The persons, who all came from Central America, seemed to use one single forger in the area, but this person was either not serious or did not care about the workers by the names he gave them, as at one time on the lines there was working (and I do not exaggerate or make up these names) “Charles Manson,” “Marie Callender,” and “Arnold Schwartzenegger” (“Manson”‘s social security number was also 123-45-6666). There was also the employee who came in and said, upon presenting an obviously fake ID with completely wrong dates, “Let me get you the other one,” and dug into his wallet to change it out.
I recall this story because it did not matter how ridiculous the ID was, how poorly it was forged, how obviously illegal were the status of the workers, or anything else, because the workers had very good communication with each other, and if there was even a hint of a raid or police action, they would disappear and not reappear until they believed they were clear to continue. Speaking with a contact from the factor who had been there for some years, he said that ICE had raided this factory at least once before over the same reason, and that most of the people had been able to escape.
The fact that Trump has continually declared that “raids” are going to happen starting at a given time means that the people who would be affected are going to go into hiding. He is not trying to catch them, but rather is helping them to hide themselves.
Second, why is Trump continually announcing this? It is one thing to say “we are going to do raids.” It is another thing to say “when this day happens, the raids begin.”
Several weeks ago, I covered a story about a series of massive raids that went all throughout the country over people possessing or producing child sexual abuse material. The raids, which were called “Operation Broken Heart,” arrested over 2000 people.
Did the FBI declared “We are going to do raids next week against all people who produce or consume child sexual abuse material?” Absolutely not. They kept silent, gathered their intelligence, coordinated with local police departments, and when the time came they executed their plan and it clearly worked.
The FBI did this because the FBI was actually investigating these people and was serious about catching them. They were not special, as any police department anywhere in the world- be it in a major world power or a local cop in the backwoods of America looking to catch a known lawbreaker -would do because one does not simply announce that one is going to attack at a certain time lest one want to fail. Why give a criminal a chance to run and hide or cover his trails?
If Trump was serious about “stopping illegals,” he knows what he has to do. People laud his intelligence and he certainly lauds himself frequently, so either he really is a fool or there is something else going on here.
This was confirmed recently by an article in the Washington Post, which said that Trump’s plan to “deport the illegals” was “thwarted” by the acting DHS Chief:
Since the Washington Post spoiled the surprise and published a report about the Trump Administration’s plan to arrest thousands of migrant families who have been denied asylum – prompting the administration to cancel the raids – many have probably been wondering why somebody inside would break President Trump’s longstanding policy of not telegraphing your moves in advance.
Well, now that question appears to have been answered by the Washington Examiner: The acting head of DHS, Kevin McAleenan, reportedly leaked the details of the operation (he traveled alongside the WaPo reporter who broke the story earlier this week) in what sources described ass a deliberate attempt to sabotage the raids.
According to several sources who spoke with the Examiner, McAleenan had opposed the raids for months. The acting DHS head, who has been credited with pushing the policy of sending more agents to Guatemala, is said to be more concerned with what Congressional Democrats and the ‘Never Trumpers’ think of his performance than most other members of the administration.
“I know he has not approved of this operation for months,” one person familiar with those private conversations said during a phone call Saturday night. “The president wouldn’t leak that. ICE wouldn’t leak that. There’s only a few people involved in these discussions…the only one who could have shared the details of those operations were Kevin.”
“That’s our belief,” a second official said when asked if McAleenan was behind the leak. “The secretary was not supportive from day one.”
The White House said it had called off the operation to allow more time for lawmakers to work on a plan to fix legal “loopholes” that have helped to entice migrants to come to the US. In reality, McAleenan successfully stymied the operation by exposing the broad strokes. McAleenan allegedly told WaPo that the mass roundups would take place in 10 cities, including Chicago, Miami and Houston. The mayor of Chicago ordered Chicago Police not to grant ICE access to its databases, and refuse to cooperate in any way with the raids.
One officials said that, by leaking the details of the raid, McAleenan might have been trying to “be the martyr” in the face of blowback against Trump’s immigration policies. That is, he was trying to distance himself from the administration’s decision making.
The third anonymous source quoted by the Examiner blasted McAleenan as a sucker for ‘Never Trumpers’ and ‘liberals’ and insisted the leak would “leave an un-erasable mark” on his time at the head of DHS.
A third official claimed McAleenan “cares more about what liberals and ‘Never Trumpers’ in Congress and the media think of him the achieving the express mission of his department.”
“[T]his will leave an un-erasable mark on his tenure,” the third official wrote in a text message Saturday evening.
Leaking the information would only have “benefitted one person” who had knowledge of the plan, according to the first person, who added there was “no doubt in my mind” McAleenan either told the Post himself or had a close comrade at DHS take care of it.
“His hands were dirty,” that same official said.
ICE advised the administration to cancel the raids after the leaks not only because targets might have been tipped off by the news and fled wherever they had been staying, but because the leaks could put agents in danger.
“Leaking the locations and details to stop the operation from happening not only harmed operational integrity, but it put the safety and well-being of his own officers in jeopardy,” the third official wrote.
“That’s law enforcement sensitive information. You just don’t reveal that,” the second official said. “It gets people hyped up. It gets the NGOs activated, and then anyone wearing a jacket with the ICE name on it is really chastised. Cities are coming out saying, ‘Here’s how you can protect yourself against it.'”
So the acting DHS head deliberately obstructed a massive immigration action because he was worried about what liberals might think. If this is accurate, we might see even more turmoil over at DHS…and Stephen Miller might have an easier time bringing the administration’s immigration policy completely under his purview. (source, source)
This assertion is ridiculous as it is entertaining, but it is also very telling, for Shoebat.com predicted that the Trump administration would base his 2020 campaign off of promoting the idea that “the Democrats” were actively involved in a “conspiracy” against him, and that the Democrats would try to enforce this idea through inter-party disarray because they want to get Trump re-elected for a second term in order that they will have the next eight years in the White House. It is not a plot of opposition, but one of active cooperation acknowledging this reality from both sides.
There are no raids coming, and if any do happen, they will be small and for political reasons, Neither party cares about “illegal immigration,” as the issue is a political football as are the people affected, many who are fleeing heinous violence in Central America which was caused by geopolitical squabbling between the US and her adversaries as well as fighting for particular business interests.
Trump did not make America great again, he is not going to make America great again if re-elected, and he is certainly not going to follow through on any of his promises in the same way that Trump Steaks, supposedly “The World’s Greatest Steaks,” sizzled out after hardly two months of business.
The only concern I have with the current debacle is, however, with Stephen Miller. The man is a eugenicist who supported genocide in Central America. It is possible that the Trump administration, as a political ploy, may be positioning Miller to take a greater role in “immigration” affairs. Given Miller’s past involvement in mass murder in foreign nations, it is quite possible that this incident may have been created or allowed in order to give him more power to “shut the border” in so far as it means to give the impression that Trump is realizing his own promises (when in reality he is not) so that he can secure re-election.