Politics
15:22, 12-Jan-2018
What kind of “s***hole” is Trump digging himself into with immigration issues?
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By CGTN’s The Point
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” US President Donald Trump reportedly asked, referring to El Salvador, Haiti, and certain African nations during a meeting with lawmakers on Thursday. The meeting was held to discuss a ban on a proposal to restore protection for immigrants from those countries.
“I think Trump has put himself into trouble,” Prof. Ian Reifowitz from the Empire State College, State University of New York suggested, saying that Trump is being pressured by people from the hard right as well as House Republicans.
“The House Republicans are much more conservative than the Senate Republicans, putting forward their own reform plan, which is much more strict than the compromise you saw coming out of the Trump White House meeting,” Reifowitz said. He added, “so there are limits where Trump can go without being abandoned by his base.”
President Trump seems to have focused too much on the border, reiterating that a wall where the US borders Mexico to the south is a requirement for a deal to provide legal status for “dreamers,” people who have crossed the border illegally but who have hopes of staying as legal immigrants.
“It sounds like a catch-22. If you don’t have the wall, I’m not approving DACA (the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program),” said Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization.
“He’s connecting the immigration laws to unrealistic issues, and he is also attacking the families of immigrants and attacking the H1B visa, which he has a lot of conditions for before giving up on this DACA restriction he mentioned in the past.”
“There is a very significant impact on the drop of the number of people going to the US,” Wang pointed out, “but the psychological impact is even bigger since it will upset a lot of American employees and students studying and staying in America.”
The Point with Liu Xin is a 30-minute current affairs program on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 9.30 p.m. BJT (1330GMT), with rebroadcasts at 5.30 a.m. (2130GMT) and 10.30 a.m. (0230GMT).