It’s midterm season, everyone! Messaging and branding are everything. And maybe that’s just fine … as long as the overall policies remain in place. Or will more than just the messaging change on immigration enforcement?
Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies remain broadly popular. Their optics, however, took a big hit a couple of months ago, and now Democrats have seized/pounced/leapt/jumped on those to stall funding for the Department of Homeland Security in Congress. Trump has already worked to provide a ‘reset’ on immigration enforcement since the two deaths in Minneapolis, relieving Kristi Noem and Gregory Bovino, and appointing Tom Homan to calm the waters. Bovino has since retired, and Noem has departed, with Markwayne Mullin about to replace her as DHS Secretary in a few days.
Still, Trump and Susie Wiles want to refresh the message and the optics, according to the Wall Street Journal, especially when it comes to “mass deportations.” The administration wants to return the focus to “bad guys,” ie, those with serious criminal records, rather than broad round-ups that generate media sob stories:
President Trump is seeking to lower the profile of his mass deportation effort, and has directed his top advisers to adopt a new approach on one of his central campaign promises, according to people familiar with the matter.
In conversations with top advisers and his wife Melania, Trump has become convinced that some of his administration’s deportation policies have gone too far, and voters don’t like the term “mass deportation.” The president has told them he wants to see more attention on arresting “bad guys” and less chaos in American cities, according to people familiar with the matter.
The desire for an immigration reset is being driven in part by Trump’s White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who believes the president’s immigration team has turned one of his marquee issues into more of a challenging issue ahead of the midterms, the people said. As a result, the administration is attempting to change not only how it talks about the issue—but also what actual enforcement looks like on the ground.
This may not be entirely about optics. Democrats think they have a winning issue on ICE, thanks to the violence that erupted around high-profile operations not just in Minneapolis but also Los Angeles and Chicago. The issue has become fraught enough that even sheriffs in Florida began complaining about the impacts this week, arguing essentially that the juice from broad roundups isn’t worth the squeeze:
A group of Florida sheriffs on a state immigration enforcement board sharply criticized the federal government’s mass deportation efforts Monday, a stark departure from hardline policies in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has spearheaded collaboration with federal officials to remove all undocumented immigrants.
Some members of the State Immigration Enforcement Council, which is comprised of four sheriffs and four city police chiefs, said immigrants who aren’t criminals should be able to stay in the country, under certain conditions.
“Those are the folks we need in this country that we embrace, because we are a country of immigrants,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, council chair. “But we have allowed, what I call the criminal troublemaker, to just flood in this country and victimize people. And I think a path for the good folks with a good intention, for the right reason, is reasonable.”
Judd has a very high profile among law-and-order conservatives, so his skepticism is notable. And it apparently had an impact on the White House as well:
Judd, who has been a staunch supporter of DeSantis’ immigration enforcement push, said he spoke with a Cabinet member who spoke to President Donald Trump about “this kind of immigrant,” and the president was “not anti that conversation.”
In other words, this may be more than a “rebranding.” This may include operational changes. The WSJ notes that Tom Homan has become a focal point in this shift on strategy and operations, thanks in large part to his success in dialing down the heat in Minnesota. He has put a halt to those large-scale and showy operations, but it has not had a huge impact on arrests. ICE still arrests around 1200 illegal aliens a day, down from 1500 during the Minneapolis operation’s peak, but a very substantial number nonetheless.
This may be part of an effort to find accommodation with Democrats to end the shutdown, too. The White House sent Homan to Capitol Hill to meet with senators of both parties yesterday to outline changes and negotiate reforms that the Trump administration may accept in its new reframing of immigration enforcement:
GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top appropriators in the Senate, were in the meeting with Homan. Other appropriators, including GOP Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, were also in attendance, as were Sens. Angus King, a Maine independent, and Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat. King, Hassan and Shaheen were involved in negotiations to end the longest government shutdown in history last fall.
Leaving the meeting, a number of senators declined to comment on the private conversation. Hoeven told reporters “we made some progress,” but Murray said the two sides remain a “long ways apart.”
Democrats face pressure on their own side, thanks to the shutdown’s impact on TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard. Senate Republicans refuse to allow separate funding for those agencies and demand that the shutdown get fully resolved. The new rethinking on mass deportations and large-scale operations are clearly intended as confidence-builders, as is the use of Homan as a guarantor for somewhat more subtle operations in the future. Homan doesn’t need to get all 47 Senate Democrats on board either, but only eight of them to get a funding bill to the floor for a finl vote.
In the meantime, deportations remain popular with voters, and they expect that mandate to be fulfilled. Voters might appreciate a little more decorum in the processs too, however.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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