Now is the WORST time for Trump to go wobbly on immigration

Now is the absolute worst time for Trump to echo Sen. Lindsey Graham’s, R-S.C. (F, 30%) talking points on immigration.

Last week, Trump parroted the long-held straw-man talking point about being compassionate to those who came here illegally as children.

“They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here,” Trump told Time magazine. “Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

As I’ve noted many times before, the entire premise of focusing on the needs of illegal immigrants at the expense of Americans is not only dyslexic, it’s precisely the mentality that is fueling and incentivizing the existing surge in illegal immigration. A memo has gone out to Latin America is that as long as you come here with children you will never be sent back. This is why Trump shouldn’t even discuss hypotheticals of what to do with those already here. Instead, he should focus exclusively in his first term on shutting down illegal immigration and ramping up interior enforcement.

The silent border surge the media ignores

It is utterly offensive for Democrats and establishment Republicans to continue focusing on what “we owe” these so-called “Dreamers” instead of focusing on what they owe their constituents and how to shut down the border surge caused by the promise of “Dream Act” amnesty. The number of Central American families crossing our border is as high as it was at the peak of the original surge in 2014, and is approaching a pace of 2,000 a day.

The cost of hundreds of thousands of some of the most impoverished Central Americans on our social services, hospitals, and schools is astronomical. It’s a big part of the estimated $296 billion annual price-tag of open borders.

In particular, the explosion in asylum claims, the lack of enforcement at and beyond the border, the court requirement to release aliens from detention, and the promise of amnesty for children has created the perfect storm of a border surge to steal the sovereignty of America. According to a new report [reluctantly] released by the Department of Homeland Security (obtained by Center for Immigration Studies), asylum claims have skyrocketed from 17,000 cases a year to 170,000 cases annually since Obama took office. The surge of asylum claims from Central America is the result of Obama unilaterally loosening the eligibility of asylum.

The message has been telegraphed to the world that as long as they make it past our border, surrender themselves to a border agent, and use the magic words of “credible fear of persecution,” they are home free. Many of the migrant families are paroled into the country instead of being detained. The remainder of the asylum seekers — most of whom do not fit the legal definition of an asylee — are being let out of detention by the courts. Once they are released from detention, they disappear into the population never to be heard from again other than adding to the massive fiscal burden.

And as we saw again last week in Kentucky, the costs are not only fiscal in nature. Two women were killed in Kentucky by a drunk-driving illegal alien who had been deported eight times but was able to return and remain in the country. Moreover, there is also a major security threat with tens of thousands are now coming from the Middle East to take advantage of these policies offering de facto amnesty.

Concurrent with the surge in Central Americans is a near-record number of Cubans crossing the Texas border. As we’ve noted before, due to the outdated Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, any Cuban who finds his way to our shores is essentially granted a green card immediately. And unlike other immigrants, they are eligible for welfare from day one. This dynamic has created an entire scam industry whereby some Cubans are able to come here without consent, collect welfare, and return home while continuing to receive payments from U.S. taxpayers. It represents one of the most appalling violations of a nation’s sovereignty.

With all of this in mind, any president who wants to truly put Americans first should not even discuss the distraction of what to do with those already here.

Trump has his work cut out for him and must focus exclusively on protecting our sovereignty and security. He must shut down the asylum scam by requiring every individual to demonstrate a personalized credible fear of ethnic or religious persecution, not just the fear of living in a lousy country.

In addition, he must have General John Kelly, the incoming secretary of homeland security, use his military experience to treat the border crisis as a military operation. It’s time to wipe out the drug cartels once and for all and ensure that not a single inch of our soil is unsafe for the ranchers who live near the border. Trump must tell the media and the Democrats (sorry for the redundancy) to come back after interior and border security are fully implemented to discuss “the Dream Act,” not one day sooner.

If conservatives don’t keep Trump strong on immigration, there is nowhere else to turn because the political gravity in Washington is all on the side of the illegal immigrants. Learning absolutely nothing from the results of the election, a group of GOP senators told Politico that they are “sympathetic” to the plight of the Dreamers. From Thom Tillis, R-N.C. (F, 35%) and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. (F, 50%) to Roy Blunt, R-Mo. (F, 39%) and John Thune, R-S.D. (F, 44%), they all expressed no understanding of the current border surge engendered by the very distorted sense of priorities they are now espousing.

Trump won Missouri by almost 20 points precisely because of his stance on illegal immigration, yet Blunt only won reelection for Senate by a mere 3 points against a weak, liberal opponent in a solid red state. Maybe if Sen. Blunt express more sympathy for the sovereignty, security, and fiscal solvency of Americans he’d have an easier time winning reelection.

We must remind Trump and Congressional leadership every day of the week that putting Americans first quite literally means putting Americans first.