For many Republicans, if a person is in the United States illegally, in violation of federal immigration law, that’s enough for that person to be removed.
asserted
person → ’ → law
For many Democrats, if that same person is in the country illegally, but — after committing the crime of entering illegally — has not committed any additional crimes, that person should be allowed to stay.
asserted
person → commit → crimes
In the first year of the administration, federal agents famously pursued the “worst of the worst,” going after illegal immigrants who not only entered the country illegally but went on to commit heinous crimes while here.
asserted
agents → pursue → crimes
Republicans argued, convincingly, that those people should never have been allowed to stay in the country long enough to commit new crimes.
asserted
people → argue → crimes
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But then the administration shifted focus to people who are in the country illegally who have not committed any non-immigration crimes while here.
asserted
who → shift → crimes
The government had a solid case against them — quite a few had received final orders of removal from immigration judges — yet media coverage sometimes portrayed heartless agents pursuing blameless immigrant victims.
asserted
coverage → have → victims
“ICE arrests soar as people with no criminal record are increasingly targeted,” read one New York Times headline this year.
asserted
headline → soar → record
Late last year, NPR reported that ICE had targeted migrants in the U.S. who “had no criminal record.”
asserted
who → report → record
And Axios reported that millions of “undocumented” — the media’s favorite euphemism for “illegal” — immigrants “have no criminal backgrounds.
asserted
millions → report → backgrounds
Such messaging helped create a political atmosphere leading up to midterm elections in which some Democrats campaigned on a platform of eliminating ICE altogether, while others pledged to cut back on immigration enforcement.
asserted
others → create → enforcement
Whatever the exact position, Democrats won a spectacular victory, with at least 254 seats in the House and at least 54 in the Senate.
asserted
Democrats → win → Senate
(Both figures might rise even higher as the last few races are decided.)
uncertain
races → rise → ?
The massive defeat certainly got President Donald Trump’s attention.
asserted
defeat → get → attention
Just days later, in his first postelection interview, with CBS News’s 60 Minutes, Trump was asked to name one issue on which he would like to work with the new Democratic majority.
asserted
he → ask → majority
“I’d love to do something on immigration,” Trump said.
asserted
Trump → love → immigration
Reporter Ross Douthat asked whether Trump thought immigration enforcement had hurt him in the election.
asserted
enforcement → ask → election
“I think it both helped and hurt,” Trump said.
asserted
Trump → think → ?
With that, he was making the distinction that most observers make — that Trump’s shutdown of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border has been a huge success, both in terms of policy and voter approval, while his internal enforcement efforts, including the mess in Minneapolis, alienated a lot of voters.
asserted
efforts → make → voters
“I think you would agree that I get an A+ for [closing the border],” Trump said.
asserted
Trump → think → border
“For getting people out, I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out.
asserted
I → get → ones
But I got hurt because we also took people that had good jobs — that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.”
asserted
they → hurt → country
“Now, there is a large part of the country that thinks they should be put out,” Trump continued.
asserted
Trump → be → country
“And there’s a large part of the country that thinks they should be allowed to stay, if they’re good people working in a landscaping company, or working in a hotel, or doing something, right? And in some cases, paying taxes.
asserted
they → ’ → taxes
And there’s a large group of people who think that they should be allowed to stay.
asserted
they → ’ → people
“So you think your deportation policy went too far?” asked Douthat.
asserted
Douthat → think → ?
“I think it might be too tough, yeah,” Trump said.
uncertain
Trump → think → ?
“And a lot of people would say that it’s great.
asserted
it → say → people
But a lot of people think it’s too tough.”
asserted
it → think → people
Trump went on to theorize about the possibility of offering some sort of legal status to people who have been in the U.S. illegally for many years.
asserted
who → go → years
But let the people that are here, and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years, work a deal for them, OK?” Trump said.
asserted
Trump → let → them
Douthat asked whether Trump thought there were any Democrats who might be interested in an agreement along those lines.
uncertain
who → ask → lines
“I think so, yeah,” Trump said.
asserted
Trump → think → ?
“People have already called me.”
asserted
People → call → me
Trump’s seeming openness to some sort of amnesty deal — although no one said the “A” word — set off alarm bells among a lot of veterans of the immigration policy wars.
asserted
one → say → wars
“Does Trump think the Democrats will do anything except pocket his amnesty and start planning for the next one, when they regain the presidency and open the borders again, Biden-style?” asked the writer Mickey Kaus.
asserted
writer → think → borders
On Fox News, Jesse Watters played a quote from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) earlier this year saying, “This idea that unless you’re an axe murderer you should be allowed to stay — that is not consistent with our laws, and it’s also not good policy.”
asserted
it → play → laws
And Mark Krikorian, of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates more restrictive immigration laws, argued that the Trump administration went wrong when it switched to high-profile raids designed to take illegal immigrants into custody.
asserted
it → advocate → custody
Instead, it should have pursued quieter enforcement in the workplace.
asserted
it → pursue → workplace
“Where are the audits of employer personnel records, which require no guns?” Krikorian asked.
asserted
Krikorian → require → guns
“Where are the letters from the Social Security Administration notifying employers that the payroll information they submitted doesn’t match the agency’s records?”
asserted
they → notify → records
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
