PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is predictably unpredictable, and his recent move may come as a pleasant surprise to his political detractors as much it has been a shock to his loyal conservative base.
First, he reached an agreement with Democratic leaders in Congress to raise the debt ceiling in order to avert another government crippling shutdown.
As the New York Times (NYT) reported, this deal will finance the government until mid-December, blindsiding his own Republican allies as he reached across the aisle to resolve a major dispute for the first time since taking office.
And then an even bigger surprise one day after Trump hosted Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi for dinner at the White House. As the NYT reported, the president said he could support legislation to protect the young immigrants known as “DREAMers” from deportation if it were accompanied by a “massive” border security upgrade. Giving in to a key Democratic demand, Trump said such a package did not need to have the funding for a border wall.
Speaking to reporters, the president seemed upbeat when he announced, “We’re working on a plan for DACA,” referring to protections for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that he just rescinded and has asked Congress to come up with a bill to protect these DREAMers. He added, “The wall will come later.”
The president said this is not amnesty. “People want to see that happen. You have 800,000 young people brought here – no fault of their own. So we are working on a plan. We’ll see how it works out, but we are going to get massive border security as part of that.”
This angered his conservative base who supported him in the election because of his campaign promise to end DACA and deport undocumented immigrants, including the “DREAMErs” — young people brought into the country illegally as kids without fault of their own.
There are Republicans in Congress, however, who see this as part of Trump’s “art of the deal” to reach across the aisle and score victory in his legislative agenda, which include not only border security, but the tax code, health care, infrastructure, among others.
“We’re not going to bring a solution to the floor that does not have the support of President Trump,” Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was quoted in the NYT report.
“But if Mr. Trump does support an immigration package that includes “security and enforcement,” he said, so will “a majority of our members, because our members support President Trump.”
But the Speaker made it clear, “The president understands he has to work with the congressional majorities to get any kind of legislative solution,” Ryan said.
This development has been welcomed as good news among Philippine officials and Filipinos in America.
In a report on The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast “Balitang America”, Consul General Henry Bensurto along with Fil-Am political and legal groups at a DACA forum last Wednesday, Sept. 13, all hope that plan comes to fruition. More than 5,000 undocumented Filipino DREAMers will benefit from this deal.
“Always have hope because for as long as you have hope, things will change for the better,” Bensurto said.
ALL FILIPINO AMERICANS — regardless of political affiliation — should let their voices be heard.
Call your senators and representatives. Call the White House.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
