A really sad border deal
Trump made the midterms a referendum on the border wall by hyping the fake security threat of a caravan, and he got crushed, losing more seats than any in any wave since Watergate. Then he shut the government down over his wall, and again got crushed, caving and opening it with no concessions, his approval rating in the toilet and support for the wall plummeting.
He threatened to shut the government down again if he didn’t get his wall, and now Democrats have struck a deal with him: he won’t get a “wall” but he’ll get more than a billion dollars for a “barrier,” and get more funding that will allow ICE to create more detention centers for more immigrants it rounds up, as it breaks up more families and terrorizes more communities. This comes as temporary protective status is set to expire over the next year for tens of thousands of refugees, who ICE will be able to target and put in for-profit detention centers. How on earth did Democrats let this happen?
It’s worth noting that in the Senate, Chuck Schumer appointed Jon Tester, Dick Durbin and Pat Leahy to the negotiating committee. Durbin is an ally of the immigrant rights community, but he’s by no means the Senate’s most progressive senator, and as the number two in the caucus, his goal is to cut a deal. Nancy Pelosi put Barbara Lee on the committee, which is at least an effort at fighting. The argument from Democratic leaders and their supporters has recently been that the party has to unite to resist Trump rather than get bogged down in internal battles over the direction of the Democratic Party. But then a deal like this gets cut. Here’s our story on the border deal, by me and Aida Chavez, with help from Akela Lacy.
(Every time I send a newsletter that is remotely supportive of immigrant rights, I get a ton of replies from otherwise progressive readers telling me how immigrants drive down wages, or otherwise diminishing the importance of the question. So, if you were planning on doing that, go ahead, but just know that I’ve probably heard it already. My readers aren’t unusual: I’ve heard from leaders of progressive online organizations that when they try to push their members to take action on immigration, they wind up with a ton of people unsubscribing and fleeing.)
In some encouraging news, the House finally passed its War Powers Resolution on Yemen, ordering Trump to stop supporting Saudi Arabia’s war there. An amendment that weakened it a bit also passed, but it’s still a big step toward ending that war, and now heads to the Senate. Alex Emmons covered it for The Intercept.
Ilhan Omar today, at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, made Elliott Abrams confront his track record of abetting genocide. She asked him questions like: “Yes or no: would you support an armed faction within Venezuela that engages in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide if you believe they were serving US interests, as you [did] in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua?” For a rundown on the unspeakable crimes against humanity that Abrams has covered up or helped orchestrate, here’s Jon Schwarz.