Pres. Trump met with Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue on Tuesday to discuss the RAISE Act. The White House didn't offer an official endorsement, but both Senators report the President is open to the bill that would end chain migration and the visa lottery.
DHS Secretary John Kelly has certainly been busy since the Senate confirmed his appointment last month, but two memos he signed yesterday are the most significant actions he's taken thus far. Kelly signed a memo titled "Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest" and another one titled "Implementing the President's Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements Policies" providing guidance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol, and USCIS on how to execute Pres. Trump's Jan. 25 executive orders.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued by Federal District Judge James Robart against Pres. Trump's Jan. 27 executive order. While the Ninth Circuit's job in this ruling was simply to decide whether the executive order was lawful and constitutional, it essentially ignored that question and based its decision on politics.
Two polls -- both conducted since last weekend's news coverage of protests against Pres. Trump's Jan. 27 executive order -- show that significantly more Americans support the President's order to pause the refugee program for four months than oppose it.
During his first primetime interview since the election, President-elect Donald Trump told Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes that he plans to deport 2-3 million illegal aliens -- coincidently, that's the same number of aliens deported by the Obama Administration. So who are the 2-3 million that Trump says he'll deport?
We know the White House's position on immigration will change dramatically when Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20, but what kind of Congress will he have to work with? While dozens of House and Senate seats were up for grabs on Tuesday, most of the seats rated as toss-ups were held by Republicans, and Trump's win minimized the loses. Democrats managed to flip six seats, but in only one of the six was there a clear difference between the two candidates on immigration.
Recent events have brought a renewed focus on criminal justice reform in Congress, and yesterday, the four Senators leading the effort in that chamber called for the consideration of their legislation S. 2123 to reform the federal sentencing guidelines. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Corey Booker (D-N.J.) gave consecutive speeches on the Senate floor, pushing for passage of the bill, but not one of them talked about the benefit the bill would have, if passed, for thousands of criminal aliens.
There's been a lot of public outcry in the year since the tragic shooting death of San Francisco woman Kate Steinle at the hands of a seven-times convicted and five-times deported illegal alien who was set free because of the city's sanctuary policies. But Congress has done little to force jurisdictions to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement even when it has detained a violent criminal alien.
The last time NumbersUSA was mentioned on the House floor during a debate, it was amnesty-champion Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) slamming us for supporting an end to the Visa Lottery. But Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) mentioned us in a more flattering way on Wednesday night during debate over his amendment to the Defense spending bill that would have blocked DACA recipients from enlisting in the military.
Primary challengers were lining up against North Carolina incumbent Renee Ellmers and her history of supporting amnesties and increases in foreign workers. But after a federal court ordered the last minute redrawing of the Congressional district boundaries, Ellmers was pitted against Congressman George Holding. Still, it wasn't enough to save her seat after a 4-year history of voting against her constituents' wishes on immigration.