ON POLITICS

For the Record: Where is Trump on immigration, again?

Joanna Allhands

USA TODAY

Step right up, folks, and witness the Incredible Changing Immigration Policy! Be amazed as it morphs right before your very eyes! Marvel at the state of politics when a hardline stance on who legally lives or visits here can soften, if just for an instant, only to become rigid once again!

That's right, fair reader. Until very recently there were clear, stark differences between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on immigration reform. Now? What we thought we knew about Trump's signature issue may be changing.

THE (OVERSIMPLIFIED) PROBLEM

We haven’t had wide-ranging immigration reform since the 1980s. The last attempt came in 2013 and passed the Senate but quickly died in the House, primarily over cost concerns and how (or whether) undocumented immigrants should be given a path to citizenship.

Some say there is no problem with our immigration system: If we’d enforce the laws we have, everything would be fine. Others argue that the system is woefully outdated: Costly border enforcement hasn’t made us safer, a generation of children who were brought here illegally by their parents are left in limbo, and employers are routinely denied access to the skilled labor they need.

THE TRUMPIAN WAFFLE

As you may remember, Trump perpetuated a get-tough stance on immigrants throughout the primary. His prescription for reform included building a taller wall with Mexico and sending them the bill. Temporarily barring Muslims from entering the country. And deporting the 11 million or so undocumented immigrants who already live here.

Then, last week, he promised a “softening” of his stance on the 11 million, which angered his supporters and failed to impress his critics. So, Trump clarified that he wanted to stop talking about the 11 million and that we should be focusing on deporting criminal illegal immigrants instead. He continues to support “extreme vetting” for immigrants to weed out those who think Sharia law should supplant the Constitution. Trump's surrogates also have said that he still wants to build the wall and that he neither supports amnesty nor legalization for the 11 million.

But that raised a lot more questions than it answered about what we're supposed to do with all these people. Trump has said he plans to unveil more this week, likely at a Wednesday stop in Phoenix. But will that come to pass? Trump tweeted that the event is on, even if his campaign people previously said it wasn’t.

Btw, not that anyone actually looks there (and who knows what it’ll say after Wednesday), but Trump’s website says he supports tripling the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, enacting a nationwide e-Verify program, detaining every person caught crossing the border until they are sent home (which could be months or years, given the backlogs in immigration courts), ending birthright citizenship and requiring companies to hire Americans first before those with visas.

WHERE HILLARY STANDS

Clinton's platform hasn't changed recently: She backs comprehensive reform with a path to citizenship for the 11 million (even though that approach has failed time and again in Congress) and has vowed to work with Republicans in her first 100 days in office to make it happen.

She supports Obama’s executive actions to defer deportation for “dreamers” and their parents and has vowed to do even more to keep families together, though future court rulings could stymie that if Congress fails to act. The Supreme Court put Obama’s plans on hold but has not yet determined whether a president has the power to issue executive orders.

Clinton also has promised to stop detaining families and close privately run immigration detention centers, allow undocumented immigrants to buy health insurance under Obamacare and focus enforcement efforts on those who “pose a violent threat to public safety.”

THIRD PARTY STANCES

Immigration rights demonstrators came to the Supreme Court in April, when the justices heard Texas' challenge to President Obama's policy.

It’s hard to find a lot of specifics for these guys, but Libertarian Gary Johnson appears to be positioning himself somewhere between Trump and Clinton, saying walls are ineffective and that the only way to handle the 11 million is to allow them to earn legal status (but not necessarily citizenship, and no line-cutting to get it, either).

Meanwhile, Green Party candidate Jill Stein looks to be positioning herself somewhere to the left of Clinton. She supports a path to citizenship for “hard-working, law-abiding undocumented immigrants” and has criticized Clinton’s willingness to deport refugees from Honduras.

FAREWELL, SWEET MEME

You guys, it sucks that Gene Wilder is no longer with us. If it weren't for his Willy Wonka meme, how would we ever be able to concisely react to anything political on Facebook? The only fitting tribute for a newsletter about the presidential election is this classic Wilder quote: "If you're not gonna tell the truth, then why start talking?"