Will the Democrats Cave?

One of the seldom discussed issues about immigration policies is that the Democrats have historically imposed draconian immigration policies. Yet today, the Democrats take control of the House amid the latest government shutdown around the narrative of being pro-immigrants. What will the Democrats do?

The narrative is that the Democrats are for “open borders” and “against” border security. That is the false narrative that Trump cohorts argue and that, conveniently, the Democrats keep silent about. The truth is that the Democrats have embraced immigrants because it gives them leverage over Trump. As usual, the immigrants are being used as political fodder.

The Democrats are expected to adopt legislation today funding the government through February without money for the wall, or funding everything but the agencies in charge of border security. It is also possible that the Democrats fund the federal government with “border security” funds but no money for the wall.

In all cases, the Democrats will sit back and let the Republicans take the heat at the Senate. Either the Senate passes forth the funding legislation on to the White House or they take ownership of the government shutdown.

If the legislation passes on to the White House, it will be Donald Trump who either caves and signs it without the wall money, or Trump doubles down on the shutdown and owns it completely by vetoing the funding bill.

That is the expected route.

But there is another possibility.

The Democrats take the opportunity to get legislation for the Dreamers (DACA) recipients in exchange for the wall. On the surface it looks like it would be a win-win for the Democrats.

But it isn’t so.

The Dreamers legislation needs to be adopted but not on the backs of the wall rhetoric because the wall issue is about racism masked as border security. Should the Democrats give Donald Trump some semblance of border wall funding in exchange for the Dreamers than they caved to Trump.

But if the Democrats hold fast and not fund the wall – even if they were to fund fixing the existing border fence and other border security – then the ramifications for Donald Trump would be such that legislation for the Dreamers would be forthcoming as Trump rushes to save himself from criminal prosecution.

The Democrats hold the cards on the wall, border security and the Dreamers with the threat of impeachment on Donald Trump. If they hold fast, Donald Trump will have no choice but to deal with the Democrats to protect his family from criminal prosecution.