Immigration issues have gotten a lot of attention this election season. Exit polls published by CNN showed that 23 percent of voters considered immigration the most important issue facing the country, second only to healthcare. Since his election in 2016, President Trump has prioritized immigration, often taking a hardline approach. In the days preceding the U.S. mid-terms held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Trump once again focused on immigration during several different campaign rallies, addressing things like the caravan of Central Americans making their way to the U.S. border, the border wall, and asylum.
So what exactly do the mid-term results means for Trump’s immigration plans? Several Republicans closely aligned with Trump’s immigration policies were defeated by Democrats. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach lost a bid to become governor of his state, Rep. Lou Bartletta (R-Pa.) fell short in an attempt to win the seat held by Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) lost a reelection campaign to Democrat and former CIA agent Abigail Spanberger, and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) narrowly won his seat.
With the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, the president’s most controversial immigration measures over the past two years will be investigated, his current efforts will be more closely scrutinized, and Democrats are expected to use their control of the budget to rein in his future immigration plans. However, given the Congressional gridlock, immigration experts believe broad, comprehensive immigration reform still remains unlikely.
Still, Democrats, who now head all House committees, are expected to use their powers to delve deeper into some of the Trump administration’s most controversial immigration actions, such as the “zero-tolerance” policy that led to more than 2,500 family separations over the summer, the treatment of immigrants in detention centers, the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census, his efforts to curb refugee and asylum admission to the U.S., and his deployment of more than 7,000 active-duty military troops to the southwest border in reaction to the caravan presently making their way through Mexico to the U.S.
We will continue to closely monitor all immigration updates and provide our clients with the latest information. Be sure to subscribe to our blog right on our homepage to get news alerts delivered straight to your inbox!
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