A plan President Donald Trump is expected to announce to remove a shield from deportation for young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children is being embraced by some top…
WASHINGTON (AP) – A plan President Donald Trump is expected to announce to remove a shield from deportation for young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children is being embraced by some top Republicans and denounced by others as the beginning of a “civil war” within the party.
The response was an immediate illustration of the potential battles ahead if Trump follows through with a plan that would hand a political hot potato to Republicans on the Hill who have a long history of dropping it.
Two people familiar with Trump’s decision making said Sunday that the president was preparing to announce an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, but with a six-month delay intended to give Congress time to pass legislation that would address the status of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants covered by the program.
The White House has said Trump’s decision would be announced Tuesday. The Justice Department announced late Monday that Attorney General Jeff Session would address the program at a morning briefing.
Trump’s decision would come after a long and notably public deliberation. Despite campaigning as an immigration hard-liner, Trump has said he is sympathetic to the plight of the immigrants who came to the U. S. illegally as children and in some cases have no memories of the countries they were born in.
But such an approach – essentially kicking the can down the road and letting Congress deal with it- is fraught with uncertainty and political perils that amount, according to one vocal opponent, to “Republican suicide.”
Still other Republicans say they are ready to take on a topic that has proven a non-starter and career-breaker for decades.
“If President Trump makes this decision we will work to find a legislative solution to their dilemma, ” said Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham.
Officials caution that Trump’s plan is not yet finalized, and the president, who has been grappling with the issue for months, has been known to change his mind at the last minute ahead of an announcement. It also remains unclear exactly how a six-month delay would work in practice, including whether the government would continue to process applications under the program, which has given nearly 800,000 young immigrants a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the country in the form of two-year, renewable permits.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and a handful of other Republicans urged Trump last week to hold off on scrapping DACA to give lawmakers time to come up with a legislative fix.
But Congress has repeatedly tried – and failed – to come together on immigration overhaul legislation, and it remains uncertain whether the House would succeed in passing anything on the divisive topic.
The House under Democratic control passed a Dream Act in 2010, but it died in the Senate. Since Republicans retook control of the House in late 2010, it has taken an increasingly hard line on immigration. House Republicans refused to act on the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill in 2013. Two years later, a GOP border security bill languished because of objections from conservatives.
Many House Republicans represent highly conservative districts, and if the president goes through with the six-month delay – creating a March deadline – the pressure is likely to be amplified as primary races intensify ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
One cautionary tale: the primary upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to a conservative challenger in 2014 in a campaign that cast him as soft on illegal immigration. That loss convinced many House Republicans that pro-immigrant stances could cost them politically.
The Obama administration created the DACA program in 2012 as a stopgap as they pushed unsuccessfully for a broader immigration overhaul in Congress. Many Republicans say they opposed the program on the grounds that it was executive overreach.
Legislation to legalize the so-called Dreamers has been lingering in Congress for years, with a handful of bills currently pending in the House and Senate.
The one that has received the most attention, introduced by Sens. Graham, R-S. C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., would grant permanent legal status to more than 1 million young people who arrived in the United States before they turned 18, passed security checks and met other criteria, including enrolling in college, joining the military or finding jobs.
It’s unclear, however, whether the president would throw his support behind that or any other existing legislation. He could encourage the writing of a new bill – tied, perhaps, to funding for his promised border wall or other concessions like a reduction in legal immigration levels. But it’s unclear how much political capital the president would want to put on the line given his base’s strong opposition to illegal immigration, his campaign rhetoric blasting DACA as illegal “amnesty” and his reluctance to campaign hard for other priorities, like health care overhaul.
Graham said in a statement Monday that he would support the president if he decided ultimately to go through with the plan as outlined.
“I have always believed DACA was a presidential overreach. However, I equally understand the plight of the Dream Act kids who – for all practical purposes – know no country other than America, ” Graham said in a statement.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., agreed, saying that it should be up to Congress, not the White House, to set immigration policy.
“We must confront the nation’s out-of-date immigration policy and finally resolve the issues of strong border enforcement and merit immigration, ” he said. “It is right for there to be consequences for those who intentionally entered this country illegally. However, we as Americans do not hold children legally accountable for the actions of their parents.”
But Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who believes that DACA is unconstitutional, warned that pushing the decision to Congress would be a big mistake.
“That would cause a great big civil war among the Republicans, ” he said last week. “We’ve got enough of never-Trumpers in Congress that are undermining the president’s agenda.”
“Ending DACA now gives chance 2 restore Rule of Law. Delaying so R Leadership can push Amnesty is Republican suicide, ” he added on Twitter late Sunday night.
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Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Erica Werner contributed to this report.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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So let’s say the Los Angeles Dodgers win the National League West. They will, right?
So let’s say the Los Angeles Dodgers win the National League West. They will, right?
And let’s say the Arizona Diamondbacks win the NL wild-card game, behind Zack Greinke.
That would set up a five-game division series between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, with Arizona set up to deploy Robbie Ray twice in the series. He’d start Game 1 and, yeah, that World Series might look pretty distant for the Dodgers.
Ray took a perfect game into the sixth inning and struck out 14 in 7 2/3 shutout innings Monday, and the Diamondbacks rode him to a 13-0 rout. He joined Clayton Kershaw and Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers to strike out 14 and walk none in a game at Dodger Stadium.
That wasn’t even the most historic element of Monday’s Dodgers debacle. J. D. Martinez tied the major league record by hitting four home runs in a game, joining Scooter Gennett of the Cincinnati Reds this season and becoming the 18th player in MLB history to do so.
“We got our butts kicked, all around, ” Dodgers manager Roberts said.
Martinez, the most impactful of any trade deadline acquisition this season, has 18 home runs in 40 games since the Diamondbacks acquired him from the Detroit Tigers, and 34 for the season, in only 395 plate appearances.
Ray has made five starts against the Dodgers this season, striking out at least 10 in four of them. He is 3-0 with a 2.27 earned-run average in those starts, with 53 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings.
No pitcher has struck out so many Dodgers in a season in 109 years. Ray became the first pitcher in major league history to put up four 10-strikeout games against the Dodgers in the same season.
Dodgers, meet Game 1.
“You’ve just to go out there and compete, ” Roberts said. “That’s why you play the game. If that weren’t the case, then we would already book a loss in the column if we face him again.”
He added: “This guy is an elite pitcher in all of baseball. He has our number. If we do get that opportunity, yeah, we’re going to compete our tails off.”
Ray, who had not driven in a run all season, singled home two runs in the seventh inning, when the Diamondbacks collected six consecutive hits to turn the game into a laugher.
Arizona extended its winning streak to 11 games. The Diamondbacks have not trailed in their last 88 innings.
“They’re playing really well, ” Roberts said. “Us, not so well.”
The Dodgers lost for the ninth time in 10 games. In the last 10 days, they have lost 8 1/2 games of their NL West lead, which has shrunk to 12 1/2 games over Arizona.
“We’re in a little bit of a rut, ” Hill said.
Hill matched Ray in the no-hit department through the first three innings. Then again, as Hill found out in Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago, even nine no-hit innings might not get you a win the way the Dodgers are playing these days.
Martinez hit a two-run homer off Hill in the fourth, a solo shot off Pedro Baez in the seventh, a solo shot off Josh Fields in the eighth, and a two-run shot off Wilmer Font in the eighth.
And he is the right-handed bat the Diamondbacks can use to complement MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt against the left-handers the Dodgers figure to start in October: Clayton Kershaw, Hill and Alex Wood.
Position players were scarce in the home clubhouse after the game, leaving Hill to field the question of how the Dodgers would be able to beat Ray in October when he has beaten up on them all season.
“I can’t really speak to that right now, ” Hill said. “It’s still too early. He did a great job tonight.”
Hill did too, giving up two hits and striking out nine in six innings. Baez did not, giving up four hits without getting an out. He was booed off the mound, loudly, and his spot as a late-inning reliever could soon be taken by Walker Buehler.
Buehler arrives Wednesday. The next pitch he makes in the major leagues will be his first.
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Indian official: Modi, Xi meeting on relations constructive
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed Tuesday their countries need to make more efforts to improve mutual trust and that peace in their border areas was paramount for a positive future relationship, India’s foreign secretary said.
S. Jaishankar told reporters that a more-than-hour-long meeting between the leaders was “constructive about where the relationship should be going and will be going.”
It was “a very strong affirmation at the leadership level that it is really in the interests of both countries to keep this relationship forward and on an upward trajectory, ” Jaishankar said.
India last week agreed to pull back troops from the disputed Doklam Plateau high in the Himalayas, where Chinese troops had started constructing a road. The 10-week standoff was the two nations’ most protracted in decades, and added to their longstanding strategic rivalry.
The plateau is claimed by both China and the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, whose external security is handled by India.
It is “natural that between neighbors and large powers that there would be areas of difference, but where there is an area of difference it should be handled with mutual respect and efforts should be made to find common ground in addressing those areas, ” Jaishankar said.
The two sides agreed that Chinese and Indian defense and security personnel “must maintain strong contacts and cooperation and ensure that the sort of situations which happened recently do not re-occur, ” he said.
“One of the important points which was made during the meeting was that peace and tranquility in the border areas was a prerequisite for the further development of our relationship and that there should be more effort made to really enhance and strengthen the level of mutual trust between the two sides, ” Jaishankar said.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi had said “healthy and stable” relations between China and India were in line with “the fundamental interests of their people.” China is willing to work with India to improve political mutual trust, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, and “push Sino-Indian ties along a right track, ” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Xi and Modi met on the sidelines of the summit of the BRICS emerging economies in the southeastern Chinese port city of Xiamen. The BRICS nations are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The Indian foreign secretary said Beijing and Delhi could help build on their relationship through multilateral institutions like BRICS and the Chinese-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Progress was made during the BRICS summit on an issue relating to a major point of discord between the two — China’s ally and India’s archrival, Pakistan.
A joint declaration adopted after talks among the leaders of the five countries Monday said they had agreed to strengthen cooperation against terrorism and named a range of organizations, including the Pakistan-based militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
India accuses Pakistan of harboring and training militants to launch attacks on its soil. China has repeatedly blocked India’s attempts to have the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammad put on a U. N. Security Council terror blacklist.
Jaishankar said that issue was not discussed at Tuesday’s bilateral between Modi and Xi, and that “the counterterrorism issues were largely taken up in the discussions leading to the BRICS.”
In Xi’s closing statement to the media, the Chinese president said the BRICS countries had agreed to strengthen cooperation and work toward a fairer economic global order that gave developing countries and emerging economies a bigger voice. There would be regular exchanges and meetings between their foreign ministers and U. N. representatives, he said.
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