For months, pundits quite reasonably noted that Donald Trump hadn’t offered policy specifics to back up the proposals he made in campaign appearances. “Trump has not offered any credible plans for what he is talking about,” one anonymous Iowa insider told Politico. “If Trump wants to stay ahead, he would be smart to put some ‘meat on the bone.'”
Now, on immigration at least, there is some meat on the bone, after Trump released a six-page policy outline of his plans to restructure the nation’s immigration system. It’s not the most extensive candidate statement on the subject — Jeb Bush wrote a book about it, and Marco Rubio wrote a nearly 1,000-page comprehensive immigration reform bill — but it should be enough to satisfy those who say Trump lacks specifics.
Among those specifics:
1) Complete and improve the U.S.-Mexico border fence, to be paid for, at least in part, by: a) impounding “all remittance payments derived from illegal wages,” b) raising fees on temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and public officials, and c) increasing fees at border crossings.
2) Triple the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
3) Impose the E-Verify system nationwide.
4) Deport all criminal illegal immigrants.
5) End the practice of catch-and-release with immigrants caught crossing the border illegally.
6) Defund sanctuary cities.
7) Complete a visa tracking system and increase penalties for overstaying a visa.
8) Increase anti-gang efforts.
9) End birthright citizenship.
10) Pressure companies to end the use of H-1B visas to displace American workers.
11) Kill the J-1 visa program for foreign youth and replace it “with a resume bank for inner-city youth.”
12) Require immigrants to prove they can support themselves.
13) Tighten requirements for refugee and asylum status.
14) Impose a “pause” in immigration during which “employers will have to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed immigrant and native workers.”
Some proposals are better than others, but it is a substantial list. And it does more than just give Trump some specifics to cite. In some important areas, Trump’s brief document will shift the ground underneath his critics’ feet. From now on, at least during the course of the Republican primary campaign, the immigration conversation will be different than it was before.
For example, Trump’s proposal to restructure the H-1B visa program comes as many of his Republican opponents support greatly expanding it, despite the harm it does to some American workers. “The only conversation we’ve had in Washington is whether to double it or triple it,” says one Hill Republican of the H-1B program. Trump has put another option on the table.
On the border fence, Trump has put the still-unfinished fence back on the agenda. Yes, he has started an argument about how to pay for it — critics call his Mexico-will-pay idea preposterous — but in the bigger picture, Trump has put new emphasis on the fence as an integral part of border security.
In other areas — going after the abuse of refugee and asylum claims, ending catch-and-release and others — Trump has shined light on problems in the immigration system that need attention.
On the other hand, one proposal — ending birthright citizenship — will go nowhere, because it would take a constitutional amendment to enact. That’s not going to happen. Besides, it would be much easier to actually enforce the law and reduce the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. illegally, which would also take care of the so-called “anchor baby” problem.
There are other problems, like: How, exactly, does one impound remittances derived from illegal wages? But there are also consensus proposals, like instituting E-Verify and stopping visa overstays.
Finally, do you notice anything missing from Trump’s list? There’s nothing about the mass deportation of the 12 million immigrants currently in the country illegally. Trump has talked about it a lot, and made reams of headlines, but it’s not in his proposal. He’ll have to clarify what he really intends.
Some of the tougher aspects of Trump’s plan horrify Republicans who support comprehensive immigration reform. But there’s new research showing that the American public — not just Republican voters, but the public at large — is pretty much on board with an approach to immigration much like Trump’s. Whatever else he has done, Trump has reshaped the 2016 immigration debate in ways that many Republicans could not have predicted.
