He knows this sanctuary cities gambit is illegal. He knows his xenophobic base is fine with that
by digby
Update to the post below:
The White House's formal statement on the story that the White House had proposed to send undocumented immigrants to sanctuary cities as political etribution:
"The simple question that was informally asked was whether --- in order to relive burdens on these receiving communities --- illegal aliens already being released on a daily basis could be sent to and cared for by Sanctuary Jurisdictions whose stated policy is to welcome and embrace illegal aliens. The idea was briefly and informally raised and quickly rejected. No one at ICE was pressured by anyone at any time."
Ok. Somebody forgot to tell the president:
This is, as I write below, his political strategy. He has to do everything possible to keep white wingers on board. That includes the college-educated whites who don't live in diverse areas who aren't happy with him in most ways but have become terrified of immigrants. This is the issue that will keep that fragile coalition together.
Bussing immigrants to sanctuary cities has the additional benefit of being a snotty, adolescent exercise in owning the libs which also appeals to his followers. The case of arrested development among these people is very acute.
I guess we're going to see if going full fascist will repel enough other Americans to beat him at the ballot box. I wish I felt sure of that. But the fact that 60 million Americans still back this guy has shaken my faith in my fellow Americans.
Aaaand there's this:
When some of President Donald Trump's top national security advisers gathered at the White House Tuesday night to talk about the surge of immigrants across the southern border, they discussed increasing the U.S. military's involvement in the border mission, including whether the military could be used to build tent city detention camps for migrants, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the conversations.
During the meeting, the officials also discussed whether the U.S. military could legally run the camps once the migrants are housed there, a move the three officials said was very unlikely since U.S. law prohibits the military from directly interacting with migrants. The law has been a major limitation for Trump, who wants to engage troops in his mission to get tougher on immigration.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan was at the White House meeting Tuesday night and was open to sending more U.S. troops to support the border mission, so long as their assigned mission is within the law, according to the three U.S. officials.
Thousands of troops are currently deployed along the southern border, and are mainly used for reinforcing existing fencing with barbed wire.
Potential new projects for the troops that were mentioned Tuesday, according to the three officials — two from the Pentagon and one from Homeland Security — also included conducting assessments of the land before the construction of new tent cities in El Paso and Donna, Texas. They would also be used in assessments before construction of a new central processing center for migrants in El Paso, said the DHS official.
The creation of the processing center was announced last month. It is being designed to temporarily detain arriving immigrants, many of whom are being released in El Paso due to the lack of detention space.
The processing center will be similar to one currently used in McAllen, Texas, where children were kept in chain-link areas, which some called "cages," while the Trump administration's family separation policy was in effect last summer, according to two Customs and Border Protection officials.
The tent cities would hold immigrants while Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities continue to be at capacity. The Obama administration also used tents to hold immigrants in Donna, Texas, in 2016.
The idea has trickled down into planning meetings held this week at DHS, one of the officials said.
As I wrote in my column this morning, Trump is serious about all this. He is a true believer, as is Miller. But it's also their strategy for solidifying the base for 2020.
