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Daily Dispatch
February 11, 2019
Countdown to Shutdown v.2.0 National EmergencyShutdown v.2.0:
Well... it was nice while it lasted
A spending agreement to avert a government shutdown looked like a sure thing late last week until Democrats threw in an eleventh-hour demand requiring a cap on ICE detention beds. One wonders whether it might have been better to include this ask from the start rather than appearing to change course and derail negotiations at the last minute. It may be a laudable position but it’s terrible politics. If the government shuts down on Friday, the blame this time will be placed squarely on the Dems.
And though the President is rage-tweeting, does he really have any skin in the game at this point? The White House already has an emergency declaration written up and ready to go. The only reason for delay is to build expectations to hype a dramatic reveal.
Tonight, Trump will hold a rally in El Paso (one newspaper’s headline describes the city as “bracing” for a Trump rally) to reiterate his, at best, misleading claims about border walls lowering crime.
Meanwhile, Beto O’Rourke, who represented the area in the Texas Senate for several years, will be leading a protest march against Trump’s visit. The march will culminate in a “Celebration of El Paso” at the Chalio Acosta Sports Center only a block from Trump’s venue (both about a 5 minute walk from the border), where O’Rourke is expected to deliver remarks.
Will he have anything to… announce?
Speaking of Texas here are two updates on the Texas voter-citizenship story from the Texas Tribune.
For Your Calendar:
Tuesday 9 am: Oral arguments on Trump’s travel ban will begin tomorrow morning at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, MD.
Wednesday 10 am: Senate committee will vote on the nomination of acting ICE Director Ronald Vitiello in Dirksen 342.
More Stories:
From Reuters: “California to pull troops from border in apparent riposte to Trump”
From Politico: “The Border Patrol’s recruiting crisis”
From NYT: “’Pit of Infection’: A Border Town’s Crisis Has Nothing to Do With Migrants”
From WaPo: “’My Whole town practically lived there’: From Costa Rica to New Jersey, a pipeline of illegal workers for Trump goes back years”
From Politico: “Bloomberg scorches Trump’s ‘un-American’ immigration policies”
From WaPo: “ICE agents in North Carolina arrest hundreds of immigrants”