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President Donald Trump said Friday that Dreamers, illegal immigrants who have benefitted from former President Barack Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, should rest easy about his administrationsapproach to immigration reform.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the president said the White House is not after the dreamers, we are after the criminals.

That is our policy, Trump said.

The topic came up asthe Trumpadministration faces a lawsuit from a 23-year-old Dreamer who was recently deported to Mexico despite the fact that DACA granted him protected status until 2018.

While Trump has been telegraphing this shifting position on Dreamers since he assumed the presidency, he sang an entirely different tune when he was candidate Trump.

When he first announced his presidential campaign in June 2015, Trump promised to immediately terminate President [Barack] Obamas illegal executive order on immigration. One of those executive orders was the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which Obama signed in June 2012.

Trumpdoubled down on that during an August 2016 speech on immigration, telling supporters: We will immediately terminate President Obamas two illegal executive amnesties, in which he defied federal law and the Constitution to give amnesty to approximately 5million illegal immigrants.

But on Jan. 18, just two days beforebecoming president, Trump began softening his position. When asked by Fox News Fox and Friends host Ainsley Earhardt how he plans to address immigration issues, he told her his plan would have a lot of heart, adding that being a Dreamer is a very tough situation.

But I think theyre going to end up being very happy, he told Earhardt.Were going to have great people coming into our country, people that love our country.

Then in February, when he held an extremely contentious newsconference from the White House, Trump described DACA as a very, very difficult subject for me.

Heres what he told reporters at the time:

DACA is a very, very difficult subject for me. You have these incredible kids, in many cases not in all cases. In some of the cases theyre having DACA and theyre gang members and theyre drug dealers too. I have to deal with a lot of politicians dont forget and I have to convince them that what Im saying is right. And I appreciate your understanding on that. The DACA situation is a very difficult thing for me as I love these kids, I love kids, I have kids and grand kids and I find it very, very hard doing what the law says exactly to do and, you know, the law is rough. Its rough, very very rough.

And in March, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly tried to ease concerns some Democrats have aboutDACA. He reportedly told them, Im the best thing that happened to DACA. It is still on the books.

But asforthe situationregardingJuan Manuel Montes, the deported Dreamer, Trump said that case is a little different than the Dreamer case, the AP reported. The president didnt offer any explanation for that conclusion.

According to Politicos report, Montes lost his DACA status because he left the U.S. without seeking prior approval, which is a violation of the terms of the program.

Regardless of what happens with DACA, though, the president seems committed to his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border another one of Trumps long-held promises. Kelly, standing alongside Attorney General Jeff Sessions, told Fox Newson Thursday that construction of the perimeter could begin as soon as this summer.

I think by late spring, early summer, well have some prototypes and then well be able to move forward by into the summer, he said. Were going to get at it as quick as we can.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the AP that Congress spending bill, which is facing an April 28 deadline in order to avert a government shutdown, must include funding for the border wall.

He said elections have consequences and that we want wall funding as part of the spending package. That hard-line position will surely cause headaches for lawmakers seeking to sidestep a shutdown at the end of the month.

We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities, Mulvaney said. We know there are a lot of people on the Hill, especially in the Democratic Party, who dont like the wall, but they lost the election.

The president should, I think, at least have the opportunity to fund one of his highest priorities in the first funding bill under his administration, he continued.

On the campaign trail, it should be noted, Trump consistently and vehementlypromisedMexico would pay for the border wall.

Read the original post:
Trump: Dreamers can 'rest easy' under my immigration policies - TheBlaze.com

Immigration reform must not strand farmers

In a meeting April 8, farmers in the Pioneer Valley spoke about how hard it would be to operate their businesses without a skilled and reliable workforce, some of it made up of immigrant workers (Farmers bedrock shaken, April 10).

Their experience puts the lie to the conventional story of immigrant workers, which suggests that immigrants in tech fields are skilled and immigrants in the food system are unskilled. Instead, these farmers explained, workers arrive with important agricultural experience and a high level of skill.

Our immigration policy should reflect reality: we need workers to put food on our tables, and American-born workers generally opt out of farm work.

I will continue to prioritize local farms when shopping for food, and reach out to my legislators, urging them to push for immigration reform that doesnt leave farmers stranded and workers in fear.

Nicholas Jones

Whately

View original post here:
Nicholas Jones: Immigration reform must not strand farmers - GazetteNET

For the last 40 years, elected officials in Washington have repeatedly tried to secure our nations southern border and fix our broken immigration system, but every attempt at comprehensive reform legislation has failed.

While some falsely assume that this prolonged failure only affects border communities, the reality is that it has also created disastrous repercussions for the rest of the nation.

The most deadly consequence of Washingtons failure to secure the southern border has been the rise of dangerous narcoterrorist organizations that operate within the confines of both Mexico and the United States.

This in turn has exacerbated the heroin and opioid epidemic that is devastating virtually all communities in every corner of our country. Heroin overdoses took the lives of more than 30,000 Americans in just a three year period from 2013 to 2015.

The vast majority of heroin in the United States comes from Central and South America, as cartels smuggle the drugs across our border, store them at stash houses, and then distribute them to cities across our country.

In addition to profiting from poisoning Americans with addictive and lethal drugs, narcoterrorist cartels are also making lucrative profits from human smuggling. Most people who illegally enter through the Southern border rely on coyotes or human smugglers to assist them. Many of these smugglers are affiliated with or work directly for a cartel, and give them a large chunk of their earnings.

The human smugglers and cartels have no regard for the lives of the families and unaccompanied children they escort to the border, abandoning them at the first sign of a law enforcement official, bad weather, or a simple health ailment of one of the travelers. Hundreds die every year during the treacherous journey to American soil.

One ranch I visited on the Texas-Mexico border has recovered more than 100 dead bodies on the property over the last ten years, reflecting the real, tragic danger for migrants. The cruel twist is that the ranch is only half a mile away from a rescue beacon run by border patrol, where agents are ready to provide help and safety.

Some migrants have also been killed at the direct hands of the cartels, with one of the most notorious examples being the 2010 massacre in which Los Zetas narcoterrorists executed 72 men and women and buried their bodies in a mass grave after they refused to pay extortion fees to cross the border.

Its clear that our unsecured border is the source of both a humanitarian crisis and a major national security vulnerability. We need to start focusing on practical solutions that will secure our border once and for all.

We need to recognize that a continuous wall from one end of our Southern border to the other is neither feasible nor effective. Its basic geology. A 20-foot wall on a 3,000-foot sheer cliff will not stop human crossings or drug trafficking, and neither will a 20-foot wall on the Rio Grande River, where the winding river and soft soil make construction extremely difficult and expensive.

However, we can still effectively achieve a secure border through major strategic investments in three resources: personnel, technology, and infrastructure.

We need more boots on the ground to patrol the border, which means hiring more Customs and Border Protection agents to apprehend those attempting to illegally enter our country. This is easier said than done, as the agency has faced staffing difficulties and low morale in recent years. These issues must be addressed head-on, with a focus on ways to decrease the attrition rate and significantly increase the number of qualified men and women to serve as agents.

Technology will also play a critical role in assisting efforts to keep our border secure. This includes making investments in sensors, remote video and monitoring surveillance systems, forward looking infrared, and thermal acquisition monocular systems.

Beefing up infrastructure is also a necessity. There are many areas along the border where we can utilize a combination of fencing, watch towers, and other physical barriers that will ultimately increase the speed and effectiveness of apprehending illegal entrants.

We must also improve security and infrastructure at ports and bridges of entry and exit, where the majority of narcotics, counterfeit goods, and other illicit products are smuggled into the United States. This must include expanding and improving the resources available to Customs and Border Protection agents.

Above all else, the personnel, technology, and infrastructure that we invest in and utilize must be targeted to the unique needs of specific areas along the border. We must rely on the experience, knowledge and insight of local leadership.

I believe that a practical and effective approach to border security can gain the support of the Trump administration and both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Moving forward, border security should initiate the first phase of a methodical, step by step process to immigration reform that will also strengthen interior enforcement, reform our legal immigration system, and address the undocumented population in the United States in a fair and compassionate way.

Securing our border and reforming our broken immigration system will require all sides to demonstrate a willingness to work together and refuse to allow the perfect to become the enemy of good solutions.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

Originally posted here:
Securing our border must be first step in immigration reform - The Hill (blog)

Steve Marcus

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev) listens to a question during a town hall meeting at Las Vegas City Council Chambers Tuesday, April 18,2017.

By Chris Kudialis (contact)

Published Tuesday, April 18, 2017 | 8:30 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, April 18, 2017 | 11:45 p.m.

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto fielded questions from dozens of Nevada residents Tuesday night at Las Vegas City Hall, touching on topics of immigration, organized labor and President Donald Trump's proposed skinny budget.

We are a multicolored fabric of immigrants that build this country, Cortez Masto said when asked whether she would support an initiative to protect undocumented immigrants by making Nevada a sanctuary" state. The ones that I have met are working hard and are contributing to our economy.

The nearly two-hour town hall featured about 450 attendees, mostly supporters of the Democratic senator. Attendees applauded, shouted and gave a standing ovation when Cortez Masto was introduced. The applause continued throughout the evening as Cortez Masto answered questions.

Cortez Masto argued that a budget proposed by Trump will result in the loss of so many agencies that are a benefit to our community. She cited proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the proposed elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities as devastating.

Its top-lined, but it doesnt give specifics, she said of the federal budget, which at 53 pages was the smallest budget released by any U.S. president during the past presidential administrations.

The U.S. senator also blamed the president for his negative rhetoric toward media outlets and suggested that the arrest of KLAS Channel 8 cameraman Neb Solomon on Saturday during a peaceful protest outside of Trumps namesake Las Vegas hotel was a product of Trump's efforts to denigrate the press.

Cortez Masto doubled-down on her support of voter-approved legalized marijuana in Nevada, saying she was against federal intervention proposed by the Trump administration and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

I will continue to fight for the states right to legalize medical and recreational marijuana, she said.

The first-term U.S. senator and former Nevada attorney general added to a group of five audience members holding up signs in favor of $15 hourly minimum wages that she supported raising the wage, but did not outline any legislation.

I want the American Dream for everyone, but I need your help, she said.

She reaffirmed her support for organized labor, telling UNLV student Matt Kimball that she would support pro-labor candidates in the 2018 midterm elections.

Many of those asking questions represented political organizations in Nevada, like Hispanic activist group Mi Familia Vota and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. Over a dozen people asking questions also thanked the senator for her presence at the event and asked what they or their respective organizations could do to work more collaboratively with her office.

Tuesdays Cortez Masto town hall took place one day after fellow U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Mark Amodei spoke in front of angry crowds in Reno on Monday.

Cortez Masto took note of the strong turnout, telling attendees their energy was incredible. She encouraged them to continue to make their voices heard for the end game of the 2018 elections.

The senator was not asked specifically about professional sports in Las Vegas. But she did express her disapproval for a projected $750 million of public funds set to be included in the $1.9 billion budget for the new Las Vegas Raiders stadium as part of a separate question on public spending.

I dont think public money should be used to build the stadium, she said.

Cortez Mastos town hall came just hours after she toured the Boulder Solar 1 facility in the Eldorado Valley on Tuesday morning. The senator joined Boulder City Mayor Rod Woodbury and representatives from NV Energy and Sunrun for the tour.

Originally posted here:
Cortez Masto talks Trump budget, immigration reform and labor ... - Las Vegas Sun

Bold leadership is not a trait often associated with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which is largely why the establishment GOP leadership was marginalized in the last election. For years, they have known that the H-1B guest worker visa program was not merely passively broken, but was actively undermining American workers. Heck, they could have found that out just by watching 60 Minutes.

On Tuesday, President Trump used his executive authority to change the parts of the broken H-1B program that were within his constitutional power to fix. The Executive Order calls for ending the allocation of H-1B visas by lottery and suggests that those visas be allocated to the most-skilled or highest-paid foreign workers. In addition, it seeks to curtail foreign labor contractors from turning the H-1B program into a cash cow by snapping up the majority of visas available each year and then subcontracting workers to American businesses.

The presidents Buy American, Hire American Executive Order turned out to be a no-brainer. Normally, any action on anything related to immigration evokes howls of protest from some interest group. That was not the case with regard to Trumps H-1B changes. Groups that have fought for protections for American workers offered approval for the president. Those, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that have advocated for greater access to foreign labor avoided direct criticism of the H-1B provisions of the Executive Order and instead obliquely reaffirmed their stance that it would be a mistake to close the door on high-skilled workers from around the world.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which has been a sharp critic of the H-1B program, called the presidents Executive Order a step in the right direction toward fulfilling the campaign promise of having an immigration system that serves the national interest.

FWD.us, a mass immigration lobby group funded by Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley titans, offered guarded approval for the presidents effort to shove foreign labor contracting firms off the H-1B gravy train (although they did renew their demand for increases in H-1B visas). The AFL-CIO, which has been largely AWOL when it comes to protecting American workers against immigration policies that undermine their interests, saw the presidents move as a boost for American minorities seeking a foothold in science and technology.

Even leading Democrats in Washington limited their criticism of Trumps ordered changes to the H-1B program by asserting that the president did not go far enough in protecting American workers. We already know H-1B visa abuse displaces American workers. President Trump already missed a chance to deliver on his promise of bold action to put American workers first, said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ignoring the fact that President Obama, who was not shy about using executive policy directives to protect illegal aliens, did nothing to address the H-1B visa abuse Durbin laments.

Sen. Durbin is correct: President Trumps actions do fall short of what is needed to protect the interests of American workers. Thats Congresss job. The flawed, loophole-ridden H-1B program that allows for the displacement and wage depression of American workers was created by Congress and must be fixed by Congress. Based on the initial responses from business, labor, Democrats, and immigration reform advocacy groups like FAIR, there is very little reason why the risk-averse Republican leadership in Congress should not follow up the presidents executive order with legislative reforms that actually protect American workers while continuing to provide American companies access to guest workers who truly possess unique skills that will benefit our country.

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PsstPaul Ryan, Mitch McConnell: Jump In, the Water's Warm on H-1B Reform - ImmigrationReform.com (blog)