“In reality, their policies have fueled, not extinguished the humanitarian crisis and now Trump wants to exploit it for 2020 voter-mobilization.” – Douglas Rivlin
Another day and another string of reminders that Donald Trump is exacerbating and exploiting the crisis and chaos at the border. And because he views his hardline immigration brand as inextricable from his political brand and success, he’s set to advance more draconian policies that are doomed to fail and inflame the situation.
Here’s a few reminders:
Trump’s failed policies have fueled the crisis
Trump’s one-dimensional and deterrence-only policies have helped create and worsen the humanitarian crisis at the border. In a column for the Washington Post, Dana Milbank explains:
There’s a crisis on the southern border. The existence of the crisis is as obvious as its cause: Trump. He didn’t single-handedly create this mess, but he definitely made it worse.
He pursued not a policy but an instinct, following emotion rather than empiricism. Now, an immigration policy of toughness and fear has backfired in tangible ways.
… The president could do something useful… It would be an acknowledgment that he alone couldn’t fix it. In fact, he broke it.
Trump owns it
For all the attention to the supposed Stephen Miller vs. Jared Kushner dynamic on immigration, Trump is to blame. He’s the one who claimed responsibility for shutting down the government to throw a tantrum over the border wall. He’s the one who has taken every measure possible to make sure refugees and asylees are unable to escape violence and abuse in their home countries. As the President told reporters this week, responding to the notion that Stephen Miller is the mastermind behind Trump’s cruel policies, “Frankly, there’s only one person that is running it. You know who that is? It’s me.”
It’s all about 2020 politics
Trump’s roundtable in San Antonio yesterday offers the latest reminder that he views all of this through the lens of 2020 politics. As the New York Times recapped in a piece titled, “In San Antonio, a Preview of How Immigration Could Play Out in 2020”:
President Trump used the backdrop of a Texas fund-raiser on Wednesday to warn of the dangers and tragedy of migrants flowing across the Mexican border — an issue he predicted would play well for him in his 2020 re-election campaign.
With high-dollar donors standing behind him, Mr. Trump said migrants pouring across the southwestern border were dying in great numbers while gang members arriving from Central America were marauding and threatening American ranchers. And he made clear that he was going to try to put the blame on Democrats…
Douglas Rivlin, Communications Director, America’s Voice said:
Take a look around. Trump and his gang are putting on a political show to make it look like they’re creating solutions. In reality, their policies have fueled, not extinguished the humanitarian crisis on the border, and now Trump wants to exploit it for 2020 voter-mobilization. This has nothing to do with actually resolving issues, safety for refugees and migrants or making sure that the United States fairly enforces our laws, but everything to do with hyping up a 2020 campaign running on fear and nationalism.
