In an authoritarian twist, President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday that he’s seeking to situation coronavirus financial reduction for blue state
In an authoritarian twist, President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday that he’s seeking to situation coronavirus financial reduction for blue states on complying with the administration’s immigration coverage objectives.
In remarks to reporters at a White Home occasion with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump mentioned he’d be keen to offer financial help to Democratically managed state governments, however he desires them to do one thing for him first — bend their sanctuary metropolis insurance policies to align with the administration’s desired coverage.
Trump mentioned he was solely open to serving to some states financially cowl losses associated to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I feel there’s a giant distinction with a state that misplaced cash due to Covid and a state that’s been run very badly for 25 years,” he mentioned.
He then talked about sates with sanctuary metropolis insurance policies.
“We’d have to speak about issues like sanctuary cities, for example. I feel sanctuary cities is one thing that must be introduced up the place people who find themselves criminals are protected, they’re shielded from prosecution,” he advised reporters, regardless of sanctuary metropolis insurance policies having nothing to do with the pandemic. “I feel that must be finished. I feel it’s one of many issues that the states have. I don’t even suppose they know they’ve an issue, however they’ve a giant downside with the sanctuary state of affairs.”
Later within the day, Trump reiterated his sanctuary metropolis feedback whereas taking questions from reporters at an East Room occasion to advertise the success of the Payroll Safety Program. “If it’s Covid-related, I assume we are able to speak about [aid], however we’d need sure issues additionally, together with sanctuary metropolis changes,” he mentioned.
The ACLU responded to Trump’s comments on Twitter Tuesday, saying, “We can’t enable the Trump administration to take advantage of a public well being disaster to additional their anti-immigrant agenda.”
Federal help for states themselves has shortly turn into a divisive situation on Capitol Hill. A number of lawmakers from each side of the aisle condemned Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) suggestion that states with huge Covid-19 associated price range shortfalls ought to simply declare chapter.
The Trump administration’s ongoing struggle in opposition to sanctuary cities
Conservative lawmakers have made no bones about attempting to make use of the coronavirus pandemic to their very own political benefit. A number of conservative states, like Texas, Ohio, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, together with a number of others, tried to ban abortion care whereas their states had been below shelter-at-home orders.
The Trump administration has not been an exception. The administration has used the financial upheaval produced by the pandemic to roll again laws that it has lengthy had in its crosshairs. It rolled again Obama-era car gas financial system necessities and eased enforcement of a number of EPA air pollution laws. It’s additionally contemplating undoing many small enterprise laws.
On immigration coverage, the administration introduced on April 23 that it will droop immigration to the US, although it exempted many farmworkers from the rule.
It ought to come as no shock then that Trump would attempt to leverage coronavirus reduction towards pushing states to dump sanctuary metropolis guidelines. The Trump administration has lengthy battled in opposition to the coverage, which it claims shelters undocumented immigrants from prosecution by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and creates extra felony exercise.
Nonetheless, research have proven that sanctuary metropolis insurance policies don’t truly lead to higher-than-average crime, as defined by Vox’s Nicole Narea:
Sanctuary insurance policies don’t seem to make a metropolis extra harmful. Whereas there isn’t an enormous physique of analysis on sanctuary insurance policies’ affect on crime charges, research have discovered that they both barely lower crime charges or don’t have any impact.
A examine printed within the journal City Affairs Evaluation in 2017 discovered that cities with comparable traits however for his or her sanctuary insurance policies had “no statistically discernible distinction” of their charges of violent crime, rape, or property crime. Utilizing information from the Nationwide Immigration Regulation Middle and the FBI, researchers in contrast crime charges earlier than and after cities handed sanctuary legal guidelines, discovering that they’d no impact on crime.
Although sanctuary metropolis insurance policies don’t have anything to do with the Covid-19 outbreak, Trump apparently views the disaster as a chance to drive blues states to reshape their immigration insurance policies in a fashion favorable to his base. In that method, the quid professional quo he’s attempting to arrange is harking back to the dealings with Ukraine that resulted in his impeachment.
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