Tag: immigration reform

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Hugh Hefner More Of A ‘Play-Boy’ Than We Knew? + More News

Hugh Hefner and company (image via Depositphotos)

Some news items you might have missed: • The Advocate: While he was known for supporting LGBTQ rights, Hugh Hefner had a very straight persona. However, some of his exes have said the publication magnate would dabble with men as well as women sexually. Continue reading “Hugh Hefner More Of A ‘Play-Boy’ Than We Knew? + More News”

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Trump Immigration Policy Now ‘Get Off My Lawn’

Donald Trump says U.S. immigration policy should be like telling immigrants to get off your lawn
Donald Trump

Donald Trump went on a Twitter rant this morning railing against the concept of due process for immigrants who come to America.

In a series of tweets, the Trumpster demanded that Congress enact new laws that would allow law enforcement at the U.S. border to kick out people entering the country “just as they would if they were standing on your front lawn.”

Along the way, he called current laws “INSANE” and denouncing the process of legal proceedings by judges in immigration cases.

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GOP Immigration Bill Fails Miserably In House Vote 301-121

Donald Trump

Donald Trump keeps blaming Democrats in Congress for the lack of meaningful immigration reform, but the Republicans (who control both the House and the Senate) can’t get their own act together.

From The Washington Post:

The House on Wednesday soundly rejected a wide-ranging GOP immigration bill that would have funded President Trump’s border wall, offered young undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship and partially addressed the family-separation crisis at the southwest border.

The bill failed on a vote of 301 to 121 despite a last-minute tweet — in all caps — of support from Trump, the backing of GOP leadership and weeks of negotiations between conservatives and moderate Republicans who sought an elusive intraparty compromise.

But the GOP has been unable to bridge the divide between hard-liners aligned with Trump and moderates intent on addressing the fate of immigrants known as “dreamers.”

Highlighting the GOP’s failure to achieve consensus on any immigration-related legislation, Republican aides said he House would not vote this week on a narrower measure aimed squarely at the separation policy, amid disputes between Congress and the White House on how far such a bill should go.

With immigration reform now being kicked down the road yet again, the only legislative achievement Donald Trump will be able to tout on the mid-term campaign trail this fall will be his tax cuts.

A recent Wall Street Journal poll showed the tax reform law only garners 27% approval.

Here’s the Donald’s all-caps tweet from earlier today, plus a few other thoughts from the Twitterverse:

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Chris Hayes: ‘The Border’ Is a Convenient Metaphor For Anxious Whites

I usually tune into late night talk shows for folks to say something funny or clever.

But in this short segment from Late Night with Seth Meyers, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes succinctly breaks down what’s really behind today’s anti-immigration debate.

In discussing his trip to the southern border of the United States to examine immigration issues, Hayes is asked about Donald Trump going to Duluth, Minnesota, for a campaign rally and raging about ‘the border’ to his supporters there – in a state that isn’t directly impacted by folks crossing any ‘border’ into their state.

So – why do they rage? Because white folks are afraid America won’t be ‘America’ if our demographics shift.

Said Hayes, “It’s not actually ‘the border.’ It’s this idea of ‘invasion.’ The country is changing in ways they don’t like. The border is a convenient metaphor for that anxiety.”

And he’s right.

Watch the clip below.

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Donald Trump Wants To Eliminate Due Process For Immigrants Coming Into US

Apparently, Donald Trump wasn’t paying attention when he swore to uphold the U.S. Constitution during his inauguration.

The New York Times reports:

President Trump asserted on Sunday that immigrants who crossed into the United States illegally should be sent back immediately without due process or an appearance before a judge, an escalation of his attacks on the judicial system.

It was another twist in an already head-spinning series of developments on immigration after the president reversed a policy last week that had resulted in the separation of more than 2,300 children from their families.

The call to abandon due process on Sunday in some ways echoed part of his executive order, which seeks to detain immigrant families indefinitely, a stance that courts have said violates the rights of the children. But on Sunday, Mr. Trump went further, saying no judges at all were needed to process immigration cases.

The ACLU responded to Trump’s call to eliminate due process for migrants: “What President Trump has suggested here is both illegal and unconstitutional. Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally.”

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House Republicans Fail To Pass Their Own Immigration Bill

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives failed today to pass their more extreme immigration bill by a vote of 193-231.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says he will not bring a more narrowly tailored bill to the floor for a vote.

But with Donald Trump’s recent executive order addressing family separations at the border possibly being challenged in courts, Ryan may have to rethink that position.

It’s still possible that a solution might be found in the Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled he would consider emergency legislation on the issue.

All 49 Democratic Senators have signed on in support of a bill they’ve crafted that would legally put an end to the family separations but it’s doubtful McConnell would embrace the legislation.

Here’s the report from CBSN below.

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Donald Trump Celebrates Easter With Immigration Rant

Donald Trump

Donald Trump celebrated Easter by taking to Twitter and ranting about immigration saying “Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

Did you catch that last part – “NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

Just last week Trump was telling Dreamers it was the Democrats who weren’t trying to solve the DACA issue. Now he’s saying, “NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

He also berated Mexico for “doing very little, at stopping folks at the border.

Interestingly, Trump doesn’t seem to understand exactly what DACA is.

He added that “These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!”

The DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is only for recipients who have entered the United States before their 16th birthday and prior to June 2007.

There’s no getting “in on the act.” Either you were in the U.S. before 2007 or you’re not eligible.

Happy Easter!

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Trump: “I’d Love To See A Shutdown”

During a meeting on the MS-13 gang, Donald Trump announced he supports a government shutdown if Democrats won’t agree to tighten immigration laws:

“If we don’t change it, let’s have a shutdown. We’ll do a shutdown and it’s worth it for our country. I’d love to see a shutdown if we don’t get this stuff taken care of.”

Trump’s comments came at 2:33pm today.

At 3:50pm, White House press secretary Sarah Huckbee Sanders walked that back telling the press, “We are not advocating for a shutdown.”

#chaos