Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump is backing off virtually every pledge he made during the election, either substantially watering things down, or outright abandoning ship (see above for an example). The one area where he is still all-in, however, is deportations. Anti-immigrant xenophobia has been the foundation of his entire political career, and he's surrounded himself with anti-immigrant hardliners. He also continues to make very broad, very strong, statements about his deportation plans.
The latest news on this front comes from people in Trump's orbit who spoke to reporters off the record because they are not authorized to speak publicly. At the moment, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a policy of not arresting people at "sensitive locations"—churches, schools, hospitals, funeral parlors, wedding venues, etc. Reportedly, that policy will be sent to the shredder on Trump's first day in office.
There are at least two obvious reasons that this is part of Trump's plan (beyond the fact that the Heritage Foundation told him to do it). The first of those is that carrying off a deportation on the scale that the President-elect has promised is going to be difficult and expensive. The plan becomes at least a little bit less so if ICE is operating under fewer constraints.
Second, everyone knows how very much Trump likes photo-ops and publicity. Rounding up a bunch of undocumented immigrants in a strawberry field would probably get some attention, but not a lot of it. On the other hand, raiding a school or a church would be big news, and would dominate a news cycle or two. If it was a school, in particular, the administration could say, "See? We are stopping these immigrants from using up our precious education funds!"
There are also a couple of obvious downsides, though. The first is that raiding a school or a church would be big news, and would dominate a news cycle or two. There is no such thing as bad publicity, as the old saying goes, and Trump seems to be a believer in that philosophy. However, remember the pictures of children in cages from 5-6 years ago. Those pictures did not make the Trump administration look "tough" to most people; they made the administration look cruel and heartless. We can very definitely imagine that arresting people at school, or at a hospital, or at a church could backfire on Team Trump.
The second downside has to do with churches, in particular. If ICE hits a few of them, it not only runs the risk of upsetting evangelical voters, but it also brings up some thorny legal issues related to separation of church and state, sanctuary, and other such matters. It may not be well for the Trump administration to end up with years' worth of lawsuits from churches just to score a photo-op or two, where the benefits only last a few days.
Clearly, the incoming administration knows they are treading on thin ice here. That is why the comments to reporters are off the record. Either Team Trump is trying to keep this under its hat, or they're trial ballooning it to see what the reaction is. We will see if this plan goes forward—maybe, but maybe not. (Z)