Trump Appears to Endorse Path to Citizenship for Millions of Immigrants
January 10, 2018 by admin
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Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, floated the idea of a broader immigration deal during the meeting in the White House Cabinet Room on Tuesday, making clear that it would have to include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country.
Mr. Trump replied: “If you want to take it that further step, I’ll take the heat. I will take all the heat. You are not that far away from comprehensive immigration reform.”
Lawmakers from both parties were taken aback by the president’s words.
“My head is spinning with all the things that were said by the president and others in that room in the course of an hour and a half,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who has been leading the talks.
The president has been known to make conflicting or contradictory statements on complex policy issues, only to walk them back or change his mind. White House officials declined to provide specifics about what kind of immigration overhaul the president would favor, saying he was focused on the shorter-term measure that would shield undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children from deportation, in exchange for more border agents and a down payment on a border wall.
Hours after the meeting, Mr. Trump appeared to harden his insistence on the wall, writing on Twitter, “As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval.”
But the comments earlier Tuesday were a remarkable break with the divisive messaging that propelled Mr. Trump to the White House and the harsh policies that have defined his first year in office, marked by efforts to demonize and deport immigrants who have entered the country illegally.
The administration has also moved to curtail legal channels for immigration like refugee resettlement and temporary protections for vulnerable groups, including Salvadorans who have been allowed to live and work legally in the United States after earthquakes struck their country in 2001.
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Instead, the president presented himself on Tuesday as a deal maker eager to find common ground and unconcerned with — if not blithely unaware of — the political perils of immigration debates. The phrase “comprehensive immigration reform” is detested by anti-immigration activists.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that complicated,” Mr. Trump told lawmakers assembled around his cabinet table of a broad immigration measure.
Republican senators were deeply skeptical.
“I don’t think comprehensive reform is as imminent as he would think it could be,” Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa said after returning from the White House.
Senator David Perdue, Republican of Georgia, cautioned against talk of a far-reaching deal. “I don’t like the word ‘comprehensive,’” he said. “That hasn’t worked as it relates to immigration.”
Mr. Trump’s call for a comprehensive solution came just after Mr. Graham had said he was a proponent of “a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people,” and then predicted “a drumbeat” of vitriol against such an approach. “Right-wing radio and talk show hosts are going to beat the crap out of us,” he said “It’s going to be ‘amnesty’ all over again.”
Mr. Trump seemed almost to relish such a fight.
“My whole life has been heat,” he shrugged. “I like heat, in a certain way.”
The White House meeting itself was extraordinary, an extended negotiating session that was broadcast by the news channels at a time when questions about Mr. Trump’s mental acuity and fitness for his job have been dominating the headlines.
The president appeared to signal a willingness to compromise with Democrats on the border security provisions that he says must be part of a near-term agreement to codify the protections created under DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that he has moved to end by March that shields from deportation those brought to the United States illegally as children.
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He called it a “bill of love,” echoing the language of Jeb Bush, one of his rivals for the Republican nomination in 2016 whom he once ridiculed. On Tuesday, Mr. Bush praised the president for seeking a bipartisan solution, while immigration hard-liners ridiculed Mr. Trump for sounding like the former Florida governor.
“Donald J. Trump,” read one slogan circulated by a prominent anti-immigration expert, Mark Krikorian, showing a scene from Tuesday’s meeting. “(The “J” is for ¡Jeb!)”
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Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian)
Jan. 9, 2018
Nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants were shielded from deportation under the DACA program, which granted them renewable two-year work permits. Immigrant rights advocates say 14,000 of the young people have already lost their protected status because their permits have expired, and they have been unable to renew them.
Lawmakers returning from the White House meeting said Democrats and Republicans had agreed on four topics to be negotiated as part of a narrower DACA deal: the fate of beneficiaries of the program, border security, family-based immigration and the visa lottery. A handful of Democrats and Republicans have been meeting for months to try to hammer out a deal along those lines, and the president’s backing of that scope was a startling shift for them.
“I was pleasantly surprised,’’ said Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who has participated in those negotiations. “It was a better meeting than I expected. You can’t negotiate that much with that many people but the president expressed flexibility.’’
Still, Congress has a lot of work ahead on these areas before lawmakers come to a deal that everyone can agree on.
During the session, Mr. Trump repeatedly went back to his call for a broad and comprehensive immigration bill, even as Democratic and Republican lawmakers cautioned him of the failures of the past. Some Republicans pointedly said Mr. Trump was being too ambitious. Even Democrats worried that more immediate immigration matters might fail to pass with the broader package now on the table.
“The fierce urgency of now is for these 800,000 Dreamers,” said Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, referring to the nickname for the young immigrants now in limbo.
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Democrats have insisted that protections for those immigrants be part of any agreement to fund the government beyond Jan. 19, when current funding expires.
But the president said action on the more ambitious immigration measure would be possible as soon as the next day.
“We can do DACA and start comprehensive reform the following afternoon,” Mr. Trump said. “We will take an hour off and start.”
Previous attempts to enact such a broad bipartisan immigration compromise during the Bush and Obama presidencies proved politically impossible. After months of arduous negotiations, comprehensive immigration bills passed the Senate in 2006 and in 2013 only to be stymied in the House.
“You created an opportunity here, Mr. President,” Mr. Graham said to Mr. Trump, “and you need to close the deal.”
The president’s pivot drew swift rebukes from conservatives and immigration activists who have been among Mr. Trump’s staunchest supporters.
Roy Beck, the executive director of NumbersUSA, which pushes for reducing immigration, said the deal that Mr. Trump envisioned, like previous grants of amnesty, would bolster both illegal and legal immigration levels, flooding the American labor market.
“Amnesty-now and enforcement/reform-later agreements always fail the American people,” Mr. Beck said in a statement. “President Trump must hold fast to his compact with American workers to greatly reduce both the illegal and legal competition from mass migration.”
The president said he would insist on strict new immigration limits as part of any such measure, although he seemed to concede that his call for a “wall” might not entail the kind of physical barriers that many Democrats have viewed as a nonstarter.
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He conceded that “We don’t need a 2,000-mile wall” because parts of the border are impassible and noted that Democrats had voted for border fencing in the past. Afterward, Republicans and Democrats both said they believed Mr. Trump was using the term “wall” to describe border security, not necessarily a giant physical barrier.
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At least 13 dead as heavy rains trigger flooding, mudflows and freeway closures across Southern California
January 10, 2018 by admin
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At least 13 people were killed Tuesday when a rainstorm sent mud and debris coursing through Montecito neighborhoods and left rescue crews to scramble through clogged roadways and downed trees to search for victims.
The deluge that washed over Santa Barbara County early Tuesday was devastating for a community that was ravaged by the Thomas fire only a few weeks earlier. In just a matter of minutes, pounding rain overwhelmed the south-facing slopes above Montecito and flooded a creek that leads to the ocean, sending mud and massive boulders rolling into residential neighborhoods, according to Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason.
At least 25 other people were injured, authorities said at an afternoon press conference. Crews rescued 50 people by air and dozens more from the ground.
“It’s going to be worse than anyone imagined for our area,” Eliason said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Following our fire, this is the worst-case scenario.”
The deaths came after a heavy band of rain struck around 2:30 a.m., causing “waist-high” mudflows, Eliason said.
The mudslide struck a section of the city that is south of the Thomas fire’s burn area and was not subject to a mandatory evacuation, Eliason said. Rescue personnel have yet to even make it north of Highway 192, which is closer to soil scorched by last month’s wildfire. Burned areas are less capable of absorbing water, making them even more susceptible to flooding and mudslides.
Officials had no estimate on how many people could be trapped or how many homes were damaged. The search for survivors was still underway Tuesday afternoon, with many places inaccessible.
Stationed in Hawaii for the Navy, Tyler McManigal, 28, was notified Tuesday that his father and brother were swept away by flooding in Montecito.
In a phone interview, he said he knew very little else about what happened.
McManigal said when the flash flood and mud flow began, his 64-year-old father, John, woke up and rushed over to wake up his brother, Connor, 23. The pair were unable to make it out of their home in the 300 block of Hot Springs Road, just north of Olive Mill Road.
The torrent of brown liquid mixed with branches, rocks, boulders and other debris carried away the family home — along with McManigal’s brother and father.
“They found my brother probably three-quarters of a mile away, south of where the house is, on the 101 Freeway,” he said, adding that Connor was taken to a local hospital.
“My brother is OK,” he said.
But his father, who has six children, is yet to be found, said McManigal, who is trying to get back home.
The founder of St. Augustine Academy in Ventura was among those killed early Tuesday when a powerful mudslide swept him and his wife from their Montecito home.
Roy Rohter was identified by officials at Thomas Aquinas College, from which his daughter graduated in 2000. His wife, Theresa, was rescued and is in stable condition, officials said.
Friends remembered Rohter as an energetic leader and generous benefactor of the college.
“Roy Rohter was a man of strong faith and a great friend of Catholic education,” Michael F. McLean, president of the college, said in a statement posted on the school’s website. “He played a pivotal role in the lives of countless young Catholic students — students who came to a deeper knowledge and love of Christ because of his vision, commitment and generosity.”
Michael Van Hecke, headmaster of St. Augustine, said in a statement that Rohter “has done so much for so many people and pro-life and Catholic education causes. … Thousands have been blessed by the Rohters’ friendship and generosity.”
Emergency crews spent the first hours of light making rescues in voluntary evacuation zones near Montecito Creek north of U.S. 101.
In the 300 block of Hot Springs Road, crews rescued six people and a dog after four homes were destroyed. The mud lifted one home off of its foundation and carried it into trees, where it then collapsed, Eliason said. Firefighters used the jaws of life to cut their way into the home where a firefighter heard muffled cries for help from a 14-year-old girl, Eliason said.
A rescue dog pinpointed the girl’s location and two hours later, the mud-covered girl was pulled free. A second 14-year-old girl was also rescued from the same neighborhood and carried from ankle-high mud in a basket by half a dozen firefighters.
The U.S. Coast Guard also sent rescue helicopters into the area Tuesday morning, hoisting several people from collapsed homes or rooftops that stood above swirling mud and water. Rescue personnel were also able to save a young boy who was swept more than half a mile south from his house after the building was lifted from its foundation in Montecito, authorities said.
The boy was found alive under a U.S. 101 overpass, authorities said. But his father remains unaccounted for.
On Hot Springs Road on Tuesday afternoon, a dozen sheriff’s deputies carried a body on a gurney from a collapsed house as muddy water raced down the street. The deputies surrounded the body in silence for several moments before placing it gently into an emergency vehicle.
According to the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, the highest preliminary rainfall total appeared to register at roughly 5 inches in a gauge north of Ojai in Ventura County, in the burn area of the Thomas fire, which forced evacuations and destroyed homes last month. With heavy showers still forecast, flash flood warnings remained in effect for Santa Barbara County and southern Ventura County through Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
The 101 Freeway was shut down in both directions for more than 30 miles in the Thomas fire burn area because of flooding and debris flow, spanning an area from Santa Barbara to Ventura, according to the California Highway Patrol. Sections of routes 33 and 150 were also closed in Ventura County, according to the Sheriff’s Department. There was no estimate for when the roadways might reopen, a California Department of Transportation spokesman said Tuesday afternoon.
In Los Angeles, one person was killed when a big rig overturned in the northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway near Los Feliz, said Saul Gomez, public information officer for the California Highway Patrol’s Southern Division. All northbound lanes were closed as of 4 a.m., though Gomez said police were hoping to reopen the roadway by 8 a.m.
The victim, who was not identified, was approximately 60 years old, Gomez said. No one else was injured. While the accident happened as rain fell across Los Angeles County, Gomez said he could not confirm the crash was storm-related.