Today’s White House roundtable more disturbing political theatre by Trump Administration setting up anti-immigrant sentiment as prelude to 2018 and 2020 elections
With disturbing frequency, we’ve been highlighting how the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement is focused on “low hanging fruit” – including individuals without criminal records whose arrests surged 171% last year. While immigrant parents in long-settled American families are the ones being ripped apart by ICE and CBP, the Trump Administration continues to try to whip up fears about immigrants and crime to justify their actual enforcement practices. From MS-13 to their ongoing threats and retaliation against so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, the Trump Administration’s playbook is consistent and chilling.
Fresh off yesterday’s speech in New Hampshire, during which President Trump blamed the opioid crisis on sanctuary cities and tried to make the case for a border wall, the White House today will host a roundtable event on sanctuary policies that will feature a who’s who of anti-immigrant leaders – including President Trump, Vice President Pence, AG Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, ICE Director Thomas Homan, and even Texas AG Ken Paxton, who worked with hardliners in the Administration to manufacture the crisis that led Trump to end the DACA program.
According to Pili Tobar, Managing Director of America’s Voice:
The Trump Administration’s playbook is a short one – they engage in their favorite ‘blame the immigrants’ play and stage an event that’s about politics, exploitation, and scapegoating and has little to with the facts and nothing to do with actual public safety.
We don’t have an advance copy of the White House remarks, but we already know that we’ll hear lots of fact-free slander about immigrants and crimes and weak attempts to make the case for a federal budget that expands their deportation capabilities even more. This event is another disturbing reminder about this administration’s misplaced priorities.
Trump’s anti-immigrant playbook already failed in recent elections in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, but they can’t help themselves. This isn’t a policy debate – it’s the GOP’s fear-mongering political strategy for 2018.