Immigration: How Trump Played Pelosi and Schumer

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (C) speaks at a press conference following her face-to-face meetings and discussion sessions with young immigrants protected by DACA in Los Angeles, California on October 18, 2017. President Donald Trump has cast serious doubt on the future of 690,000 US residents brought illegally to the country as children after he presented Congress with a list of hardline immigration demands as a quid-pro-quo for protecting the so-called ‘Dreamers.’ / (Photo credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

By Felicia J. Persaud

News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Fri. Oct. 20, 2017: A month ago, two of the country’s top Democrats – Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi – were besides themselves over an apparent “deal” made with Donald Trump to help the 800,000 DREAMERS. Less than a month later, they have gotten played!

At the time, I warned that 45 could not be trusted and that reality has now come back to bite these two Democrats in the hiney – much to their stunned disbelief.

On October 8th, Trump sent a letter to the U.S. Congress calling for tough reforms of the US’ immigration system and insisting they must be included as part of “any legislation” addressing the status of DREAMERS or recipients of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) action.

This was another ‘bait and switch’ tactic by 45 – a master of this technique. Here’s what the President and his supporters view as “immigration reform” in Trump’s America:

1: Expanding grounds of deportability to explicitly include gang members; those convicted of multiple drunk driving offenses or a single offense involving death or serious injury and to those who fail to register as a sex offender.

2: Classifying visa overstays as a misdemeanor and require that all nonimmigrant visas held by an immigrant be cancelled and permit the Department of State to release certain visa records to foreign governments on a case-by-case basis when sharing is in the U.S. national interest.

3: Amending current law to ensure the expeditious return of “Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UACs) and family units.

4: Ending extended-family chain migration by limiting family-based green cards to spouses and minor children and replacing it with a merit-based system that prioritizes skills and economic contributions over family connections.

5: Establishing a new, points-based system for the awarding of Green Cards based on factors that allow individuals to successfully assimilate and support themselves financially.

6: Eliminating the Diversity Visa Lottery.

7: Significantly tightening the asylum system and expanding the ability to return asylum seekers to safe third countries.

8: Expanding the grounds of inadmissibility to include former spouses and children of individuals engaged in drug trafficking and trafficking in persons, if the official determines the divorce was a sham or the family members continue to receive benefits from the illicit activity.

9: Increasing penalties for repeat illegal border crossers and those with prior deportation and expanding the grounds of deportation to expedited removal of certain immigrants.

10: Ensuring funding for Trump’s long touted “Border Wall.”

Democrats will undoubtedly not support these right wing Bannon-like measures or risk alienating their voting bloc further. And so it seems, like Haitians on Temporary Protected Status, the DREAMERS will also have to be sacrificed for the greater good of ensuring these draconinan proposals and the Trumpian Wall of 2016 especially never sees the light of day.

The writer is CMO at Hard Beat Communications, Inc. which owns the brands: NewsAmericasNow, CaribPRWire and InvestCaribbeanNow.