House looks set to pass emergency funding bill for migrants
House Democrats were teeing up a vote Tuesday night on a $4.5 billion emergency border aid package to care for thousands of migrant families and unaccompanied children detained after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Democratic leaders appeared confident that they had quelled a mini-revolt by progressives and Hispanic lawmakers who sought significant changes to the legislation. New provisions added to the bill Tuesday were more modest than what those lawmakers had sought, but a full-court press by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat-California, and other party leaders seemed to quiet the rebellion. Passage of the House bill would set up a showdown with the Republican-led Senate, which may instead force Democrats to send Trump a different, and broadly bipartisan, companion measure in coming days as the chambers race to wrap up the must-do legislation by the end of the week. “The Senate has a good bill. Our bill is much better,” Pelosi told her Democratic colleagues in a meeting Tuesday morning, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private session. “You can find fault with any bill that comes down the pike, but we must respect the bill for what is does rather criticize it for what it does not.” The bill contains more than $1 billion to shelter and feed migrants detained by the border patrol and almost $3 billion to care for unaccompanied migrant children who are turned over the Department of Health and Human Services. It seeks to mandate improved standards of care at HHS “influx shelters” that house children waiting to be placed with sponsors such as family members in the U.S. Both House and Senate bills ensure funding could not be shifted to Trump’s border wall and would block information on sponsors of immigrant children from being used to deport them. Trump would be denied additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds. “This is strictly a supplemental that’s in response to a humanitarian crisis that is taking place right now,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Democrat-California, one of the authors of the bill. She said language in the measure limits the use of the funding to “food, clothing, better shelter facilities and so on.” The White House is threatening to veto the House bill, saying it would hamstring the administration’s border security efforts, and the Senate’s top Republican suggested Tuesday that the House should simply accept the Senate measure — which received only a single “nay” vote during a committee vote last week. “The idea here is to get a (presidential) signature, so I think once we can get that out of the Senate, hopefully on a vote similar to the one in the Appropriations Committee, I’m hoping that the House will conclude that’s the best way to get the problem solved, which can only happen with a signature,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican-Kentucky. House Democrats seeking the changes met late Monday with Pelosi, and lawmakers emerging from the Tuesday morning caucus meeting were generally supportive of the legislation. Congress plans to leave Washington in a few days for a weeklong July 4 recess, and pressure is intense to wrap up the legislation before then. Agencies are about to run out of money and failure to act could bring a swift political rebuke and accusations of ignoring the plight of innocent immigrant children. Lawmakers’ sense of urgency to provide humanitarian aid was amplified by recent reports of gruesome conditions in a windowless Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, where more than 300 infants and children were being housed. Many were kept there for weeks and were caring for each other in conditions that included inadequate food, water and sanitation. By Tuesday, most had been sent elsewhere. The incident was only an extreme example of the dire conditions reported at numerous locations where detainees have been held, and several children have died in U.S. custody. The Border Patrol reported apprehending nearly 133,000 people last month — including many Central American families — as monthly totals have begun topping 100,000 for the first time since 2007. Federal agencies involved in immigration have reported being overwhelmed, depleting their budgets and housing large numbers of detainees in structures meant for handfuls of people. Pelosi warned her colleagues that President Donald Trump’s hand would be strengthened if the legislation failed. “The president would love for this bill to go down today,” she said, according to the aide. “A vote against this bill is a vote for Donald Trump and his inhumane, outside-the-circle-of-civilized attitude toward the children.” Changes unveiled Tuesday would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish new standards for care of unaccompanied immigrant children and a plan for ensuring adequate translators to assist migrants in their dealings with law enforcement. The government would have to replace contractors who provide inadequate care. Many children detained entering the U.S. from Mexico have been held under harsh conditions, and Customs and Border Protection Chief Operating Officer John Sanders told The Associated Press last week that children have died after being in the agency’s care. He said Border Patrol stations are holding 15,000 people — more than triple their maximum capacity of 4,000. Sanders announced Tuesday that he’s stepping down next month amid outrage over his agency’s treatment of detained migrant children. In a letter Monday threatening the veto, White House officials told lawmakers they objected that the House package lacked money for beds the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency needs to let it detain more migrants. Officials also complained in the letter that the bill had no money to toughen border security, including funds for building Trump’s proposed border wall. By Andrew Taylor and Alan Fram Associated Press Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Ted Cruz seeks to cast himself as the electable conservative
Ted Cruz is among the most hated men in Washington, reviled by leaders of both parties as an ideological hard-liner loyal only to the far-right of the conservative movement. But racing down an Iowa highway on a snowy weekend morning, a solemn Cruz suggested some of his Republican rivals for president have amped up their rhetoric too much — especially on policy toward people who are in the U.S. illegally. “Tone matters,” Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, told The Associated Press in an interview between campaign stops. “Are there some in the Republican Party whose rhetoric is unhelpful with regard to immigration? Yes.” Donald Trump‘s call for a database to track Muslims in the U.S. is one example, Cruz says. But he refused to condemn the rhetoric of another Republican who could help him win Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, Rep. Steve King, the influential conservative who has described immigrants living in the country illegally as disease-ridden_and spent the weekend campaigning at Cruz’s side. “I cannot help the language that others use,” Cruz said in the interview. “I can only help the words that come out of my own mouth.” Taken together, they are remarkable statements for a conservative firebrand who rarely, if ever, shows signs of moderation. Yet in the crowded and unruly 2016 Republican primary, Cruz is trying to position himself as the grown-up alternative to Trump and Ben Carson, two inexperienced and undisciplined front-runners who have so far captivated their party’s most passionate voters by riding a wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric. As Carson’s support appears to soften, and Trump struggles to say with precision what are his exact plans for increasing surveillance of potential threats in the wake of the Paris attacks, Cruz’s is ramping up his pitch and trying to cast himself not just as an outsider — but an electable outsider at a time of widespread mistrust of Washington. “I do not believe either one of them is going to be the nominee,” Cruz told the AP about Carson and Trump. “I am working very hard to win every one of their supporters.” Cruz spoke to AP at the end of a week in which Carson, who previously said he wouldn’t support a Muslim president, likened dealing with Syrian refugees to the handling of “rabid dogs” and said he would support government monitoring of any group deemed radical and “anti-American.” Having described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals in his announcement speech, Trump this week said he would “absolutely” support a mandatory database to track Muslims in the U.S. He later said he wanted a “watch list” for Syrian refugees and “surveillance of certain mosques.” To be sure, Cruz has reacted aggressively to the Paris attacks and his is targeting same slice of the Republican electorate as the two front-runners. He introduced legislation this week entitled the “Terrorist Refugee Infiltration Prevention Act” that would allow U.S. entry only to Christian fleeing war-torn Syria. That comes after Cruz, whose Cuban-born father first immigrated to Canada and then to the U.S., last week outlined an immigration policy that would dramatically increase deportations, add hundreds of miles to the wall on the Mexican border and suspend a program that grants work visas to high-skilled immigrants, a reversal of his previous position. But the Harvard-educated attorney who served five years as the Texas solicitor general has done so while avoiding the explosive language employed by Trump and Carson, which critics say reeks of xenophobia — if not outright bigotry. “I am the son of an immigrant who came from Cuba with nothing, came here legally,” Cruz said. “And my view, which I think the vast majority of Americans share, is very simple: Legal good. Illegal bad.” And yet even while suggesting some Republicans have gone too far with their rhetoric, Cruz spent the weekend campaigning alongside Iowa Rep. Steve King, a favorite of evangelical voters and one of his party’s most outspoken hardliners on the issue. King, who endorsed Cruz this week, has described immigrants living in the country illegally as disease-ridden and compared them to drug mules and livestock. He is perhaps best-known for a 2013 comment attacking children of such immigrants: “For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds — and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’ve been hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.” With King riding in the second vehicle of Cruz’s two-car caravan, Cruz refused to condemn such comments when pressed. He also declined to name any Republicans whose rhetoric on immigration has been “unhelpful.” “I am not going to approach this election like a theater critic — giving my reviews of every word uttered by every other Republican,” Cruz said. “I’m going to focus on my message.” And while that message may be tempered compared to that Trump and Carson, Cruz’s efforts to paint himself as the electable outsider haven’t won over some of his critics. “I have serious reservations at this point about Ted Cruz,” said Alfonso Aguilar, a Republican who served in the George W. Bush administration and now leads the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “He’s allied himself with Steve King,” Aguilar said, suggesting that Cruz has turned his back on his immigrant roots. King, meanwhile, heaped praise on Cruz as they crisscrossed Iowa together. The congressman introduced the presidential contender as “the man I believe will restore America’s soul.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Border agents cancel meeting with Donald Trump; he’s not happy
A local border patrol union pulled out of events involving Donald Trump on Thursday as the Republican presidential contender charged ahead with plans to visit the Mexican border to highlight his hardline stance on illegal immigration. Patrol agents had planned to accompany Trump to the border and hold a meeting with him but canceled after consultations with their national union, the National Border Patrol Council, said Hector Garza, president of Local 2455. The Trump campaign said in a statement he would go to the border anyway in the afternoon, “despite the great danger,” and blamed the snub on the union’s superiors “who do not want people to know how bad it is on the border — every bit as bad as Mr. Trump has been saying.” The businessman and reality TV host was planning multiple appearances in Laredo, including an afternoon news conference. Garza said the union opted out of the Trump visit “after careful consideration of all the factors involved in this event and communicating with members of the National Border Patrol Council.” He said agents had intended to give Trump and the accompanying reporters a “boots-on-the-ground perspective” at the border. During his visit to Laredo, Trump will be a short distance from the volatile Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo. As for concerns about dangers, however, lawmakers and other well-known officials routinely visit the area and tour border facilities at the country’s busiest inland port. His visit drew strong reaction from some residents of Laredo, which has an overwhelmingly Hispanic population. Pedro Omar Castillo, 72, suggested that Trump needs the growing Hispanic vote to be successful in 2016. “But he’s not going to get it because of his words,” Castillo said in Spanish as he walked through a downtown park. “He is a racist.” Trump roiled the presidential race weeks ago when he branded Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, sparking a feud with his GOP rivals that intensified after his dismissive comments about Arizona Sen. John McCain‘s military service in the Vietnam War. From party heavyweights like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to relative newcomers to the national scene like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Trump’s rivals face his tactics of calling out his critics by name, vilifying the GOP establishment and injecting inflammatory rhetoric into the immigration debate. In Washington on Wednesday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was asked about Trump’s trip to Laredo. He snapped, “I hope he can find the border because I’m not sure he’s ever been there before.” That was after Perry, a GOP presidential contender, denounced Trump’s campaign as a “cancer on conservatism” and a “barking carnival act” in a speech that defined “Trumpism” as “a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued.” Indeed, the insults flying between Trump and his rivals have been caustic. South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday, “The only way we’re going to be able to lose the election is continue to say things like Donald Trump is saying.” “Donald Trump is a great showman,” Graham told MSNBC. “That’s why all these companies hired him to sell their products. That’s the reason all these companies are firing him, because he’s toxic.” “I think he’s sort of a political car wreck where people slow down and watch,” Graham said. Others in the GOP field have been more measured, though showing signs of growing exasperation. Bush, in particular, has conspicuously tried to avoid alienating Trump’s supporters — “good people” with “legitimate concerns” — even while branding Trump’s rhetoric as “ugly” and “mean-spirited.” The feud is unfolding as the candidates head into a presidential election in which Hispanic voters will play a critical role, particularly in swing states such as Nevada, Colorado and Florida. “If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States, they will not pay attention to our next sentence,” reads a Republican National Committee report released after the 2012 election, citing the need to embrace Hispanic voters. “It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies.” Yet Trump, who has become a dominant force in the 2016 contest, has clearly stated, over and over again, that Mexican immigrants are unwelcome. “The Mexican government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States,” and “criminals, drug dealers, rapists” are among them, he said in a recent statement that also declared “great respect for Mexico.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
No retreat, no surrender for free-speaking candidate Donald Trump
Once again, Donald Trump isn’t backing down from comments that have inflamed the Republican presidential race. And some of his rivals are no longer treating him with kid gloves. Republican presidential contenders Marco Rubio and Rick Perry said Trump, with his latest bombast, has demonstrated he is not fit to be president. At an Iowa candidate forum on Saturday, Trump dismissed Republican Sen. John McCain‘s reputation as a war hero, saying the aviator was merely taken captive after being shot down in Vietnam and “I like people who weren’t captured.” “I will say what I want to say,” Trump said Sunday, claimed a strong record of supporting veterans and accused McCain of failing them in Washington. “I will do far more for veterans than John McCain has done for many, many years, with all talk no action,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week.” ”He’s on television all the time, talking, talking. Nothing gets done.” A McCain spokesman has said the Arizona lawmaker would have no comment about Trump’s remarks. Although unrepentant, Trump allowed after the Iowa event that McCain might be a hero after all, but said people who “fought hard and weren’t captured and went through a lot, they get no credit.” And he said Sunday about the Republican race: “I’m certainly not pulling out.” McCain spent more than five years as a prisoner of war, enduring torture. He stirred Trump’s anger last week when he said Trump’s comments about immigrants had “fired up the crazies” at a Phoenix rally. Weeks ago, after Trump asserted that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers, Hispanic leaders were incensed not only about those remarks but about the slow and halting response from others seeking the GOP nomination. But the fallout from Trump’s latest salvo has spread quickly and indicates that at least some of his competitors are losing their inhibitions about repudiating him. Rubio, a Florida senator, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump insulted all prisoners of war, not just McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee defeated by Barack Obama. “He’s saying that somehow if you’re captured in battle you’re less worthy of honors,” Rubio said. “It’s not just absurd, it’s offensive. It’s ridiculous. And I do think it’s a disqualifier as commander in chief.” Rubio said as the campaign goes on and Trump commands attention, “it’s required people to be more forceful in some of these offensive things that he is saying.” Perry, one of the few veterans running for president, said Trump has demonstrated he has neither the character nor the temperament for the White House. “Over the top,” the former Texas governor said of Trump on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” ”Really offensive.” Jeb Bush, whose wife is from Mexico, took sharp offense at Trump’s earlier comments as others hedged. After Trump’s comments about McCain, the former Florida governor tweeted, “Enough with the slanderous attacks.” But both Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, while agreeing McCain is a genuine hero, sidestepped when asked if they condemned Trump’s remarks. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
NBC dumps Donald Trump over Mexican immigrant remarks
Presidential candidate Donald Trump, a part-time Palm Beach resident, is getting serious backlash over comments about Mexican immigrants in his campaign announcement speech. NBC is severing ties to the outspoken celebrity business mogul, and will not air the partially Trump-owned Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants. Trump fired back with a statement accusing NBC of giving in to political correctness and being “weak and foolish.” The network is willing to “stand behind lying Brian Williams,’ Trump said, “but won’t stand behind people that tell it like it is.” Spanish-language channel Univision also severed ties will Trump last week, saying it won’t air the pageants because of his comments. Trump then barred Univision execs from his Doral golf course. In his June 16 announcement, Trump said Mexican immigrants were “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.” He also supports building a wall along the southern border of the U.S., forcing Mexico to pay for it – a suggestion the Mexican government calls “biased and absurd.” Trump doubled down on his comments in a statement Monday. “As of today, Donald J. Trump is no longer affiliated with NBC. Mr. Trump stands by his statements on illegal immigration, which are accurate. NBC is weak, and like everybody else is trying to be politically correct — that is why our country is in serious trouble. “We must have strong borders and not let illegal immigrants enter the United States. As has been stated continuously in the press, people are pouring across our borders unabated. Public reports routinely state great amounts of crime are being committed by illegal immigrants. This must be stopped and it must be stopped now. Long ago I told NBC that I would not being doing The Apprentice because I am running for President in order to Make our Country Great Again. “If NBC is so weak and so foolish to not understand the serious illegal immigration problem in the United States, coupled with the horrendous and unfair trade deals we are making with Mexico, then their contract violating closure of Miss Universe/Miss USA will be determined in court. “Furthermore, they will stand behind lying Brian Williams, but won’t stand behind people that tell it like it is, as unpleasant as that may be.”
