If opponents and supporters of immigration reform have something in common, it is a shared nervousness about the President Donald Trump’s intentions. Advocates for immigration reform, wanting undocumented immigrants to be offered a path to legal status, are furious at the actions of the White House. Critics are afraid that Trump is not keeping his promises made during last year’s Presidential election campaign.
Immigration advocates say the more aggressive approach being taken by Trump on deportation is causing immigrant communities to live in fear and is breaking up families. Opponents are complaining about the lack of movement on the President’s much-vaunted border wall, and are livid about the appointment of the pro-immigration economist, Kevin Haslett, as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Trump’s controversial appointments have also made pro-immigration supporters angry. These include Julie Kirchner, from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), hired as adviser to acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Kevin McAleenan, and the Center for Immigration Studies’ (CIS) Jon Feere, employed as adviser by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Thomas D. Homan, the agency’s acting director. Both FAIR and CIS are advocacy groups that want to see a reduction in immigration to the US.
Representative, Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus head, has slammed Trump and Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for using blunt force instead of workable solutions to the outdated US immigration system. Many on the right are equally frustrated by the President’s lack of success in changing current immigration laws.