Donald Trump’s tough talk on illegal immigration was a big part of the reason Dave Hagstrom and many others in this booming Phoenix suburb supported him for president. “Walls make good neighbors,” Hagstrom said.
So when the president moved this week to cut a deal — with Democrats no less — to block the expulsion of 800,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, was Hagstrom disappointed?
Not at all.
“If you were to deport them, where would they go?” Hagstrom, 60, a car-warranty manager, asked on his way to a Bible-study dinner at an upscale shopping mall. “To send them across the border would be inhumane almost. There’s no life for them there.”
Trump’s fiery rhetoric and promise to seal the U.S. border with Mexico attracted millions of supporters in last year’s election, many of them older white conservatives like the ones who repeatedly elected immigration hard-liner Joe Arpaio as sheriff here in Maricopa County.
But as Trump shifted this week to a softer approach on the young immigrants in legal limbo through no fault of their own, many of his most die-hard supporters moved right along with him — among them Arpaio, who was ousted in November by voters tired of his inflammatory approach.
In more than a dozen conversations with Trump voters in this sweltering Sonoran Desert oasis, not one found fault with Trump’s abandonment of his vow to deport the young immigrants, often referred to as Dreamers. In the bargain, he said, Democrats agreed to much tougher border enforcement, though not construction of a physical wall.
“I’m a believer in America First,” Joe Dahlstrom, 45, a Mesa golf course owner, said as misters sprayed him and his 4-year-old daughter, Gracyn, outside the Panera Bread where they stopped Thursday night for a family dinner.
“But I also think that at this point we just have to take a hard look at who’s here,” Dahlstrom said. “And if they’re good people who are doing the right things and have assimilated, I think a plan needs to happen.”
Young immigrants brought to the United States illegally were able to get work permits and a reprieve from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Trump halted the Obama administration program last week, but gave Congress six months to try to come up with a replacement.
Even Trump’s willingness to bypass Republicans in Congress and work with Democrats to strike an immigration bargain failed to faze supporters like Dave Buckett.
“His party doesn’t back him, so he might as well go to the competition,” said the 76-year-old retiree from nearby Gilbert. “There’s a lot of swamp on both sides of the fence. I think there’s more on the Republican side than people like to think. Sad to say.”
The deal with Democrats and willingness to accommodate Dreamers mark a striking turnabout for Trump.
During the 2016 campaign he often tried — depending on his audience — to avoid explicit statements regarding the Dreamers, who, polls show, are viewed with sympathy by a majority of Americans.
But speaking directly to supporters, as he did in a fiery August 2016 speech in Phoenix, Trump left no doubt that he favored their expulsion. He vowed to reverse President Obama’s “illegal executive amnesties” for millions of immigrants, including Dreamers.
“Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation,” Trump flatly stated. “That is what it means to have laws and to have a country.”
The sole route to legal status for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, Trump told backers, would be to “return home and apply for reentry like everybody else.”
Arizona, a state renowned for taking one of the hardest lines on illegal immigration in the country, has spent years at the forefront of the issue, as both a major point of illegal entry to the U.S. and home to several of the most prominent voices in the debate.
Arpaio, who served six terms as sheriff of Maricopa County — which takes in Phoenix and its Republican-leaning suburbs — and former Gov. Jan Brewer became national figures for their harsh rhetoric and uncompromising stance.
By contrast, the state’s two Republican senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, have backed comprehensive legislation that would toughen border security while providing a path to permanent residency for the millions of immigrants who came to the country illegally but have since proved upstanding citizens.
Both expressed support this week for the broad outlines of the compromise that Trump forged over dinner at the White House with Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, the top two Democrats in Congress.
“It’d be fine with me,” said McCain, a leader of the 2013 effort to pass sweeping immigration legislation, which passed the Senate but died in the House. “What we need is what I’ve been advocating for years — and we’ve already done it with 68 votes — and it’s comprehensive reform.”
Flake, who was also part of that earlier bipartisan effort, suggested the contours of this week’s agreement could produce a deal. “I hope so,” said Flake, who faces a tough 2018 reelection fight. “I want it.”
While some of the loudest voices on the right have been savage in their criticism of the president — “At this point who DOESN’T want Trump impeached?” provocateur Ann Coulter tweeted — surveys suggest rank-and-file conservatives are more willing to go along with the president.
One bipartisan survey, conducted in May, found that nearly eight in 10 Trump voters supported continuation of the program that protects Dreamers from deportation, if that was the president’s choice. “If Trump leads, his base will follow,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster, who helped conduct the research.
Indeed, even Arpaio seemed willing to go along with the compromise reached this week, if Trump thinks it best.
“He’s trying to make deals and get stuff done,” said Arpaio, a staunch supporter of the president who faced a prison sentence for racial profiling before Trump pardoned him last month.
That suits people like Joseph Wise just fine.
“I know a lot of these kids,” said Wise, 75, a retired electrical engineer from Gilbert, who paused to talk about Trump and immigration as he loaded groceries into the back of his sport utility vehicle. “They’re good kids. I’ve talked to some of them about how they crossed the border and barely survived.”
To Steve Feld, it makes no sense to deport young immigrants smuggled into the U.S. by their parents. ”You can’t send them back if they grew up here,” the 60-year-old locksmith said on his way to buy a birthday gift for his grandson at a Target in Mesa. “That’s not fair.”
Not that Trump’s supporters have given up on the border wall or tough security measures to stop illegal immigration.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-daca-arizona-20170916-story.html
If I was not a TWFTT radio broadcast listener I’d probably be just as stupid and compromised as these people quoted in this article.
Knowledge is the key, and once you gain it you are responsible to uphold it.
The people making the statements about letting these dreamers/illegals remain here are complicit in the crime along with Trump who they support.
It is obvious to me that they have no true conviction or solid ground to stand on because they are blowing with the criminal wind as Trump walks away from that which got him voted in.
Would they, if they knew the true condition on this nation actually be willing to listen and then change their behavior accordingly, such as, canceling their voting ability?
Exactly Katie,
Funny how most of these supporters are older, retired with a decent retirement income. It’s the younger crowd I want to hear from. The ones whose jobs have been stolen.
My first question is, what the f–k are two reporters from the LA Times doing in Arizona? Did they really send two reporters to Arizona just to ask Joe Six-Pack some questions?
And if they did, did they just cherry pick a handful of a$$holes who don’t know their heads from a hole in the ground and print their opinions?
I guess I’m supposed to think that everybody in Arizona is just peachy keen with Trump’s amnesty idea. Because apparently, according to the LA Times, there aren’t any dissenting voices at all.
This entire article was written in order to make Trump’s amnesty deal seem serendipitous, when in actual reality, this was the plan all along.
This article is a propaganda piece, designed to get all the Trumpeteers on board with the idea of illegal aliens invading the country seem normal.
Perception management, as an intelligent listener to Henry’s broadcast likes to say. Normalizing the new paradigm.
Now, having asked all the questions I’ve asked, and written what I’ve written, I have to ask myself if the people in this article, like Hagstrom, Dahlstrom, Buckett, Wise and Feld actually exist?
I may never find a definitive answer to that question, but if I were a betting man, I would have to say no. I don’t think they really exist and I think this article is completely made up.
The writers claim they took a “…bipartisan survey, conducted in May, found that nearly eight in 10 Trump voters supported continuation of the program that protects Dreamers from deportation, if that was the president’s choice.”
1. How do I know they took a survey? I’m supposed to believe known liars who claim to have taken a survey and then believe the results?
2. Bipartisan? How exactly is the survey bipartisan, when the only people surveyed were Trump supporters?
3. Oh, and they took this survey all the way back in May, huh? Wow. I know Trump mentioned DACA during his campaign but this whole Dreamer thing didn’t become an issue until a couple of weeks ago. That’s some straight up Nostradamus sh-t, right there. Perhaps they used a time machine.
I’m going to go ahead and use my prognostication powers and I’m going to look ahead into the future and see what my country looks like with the Jews in charge.
Whoops. I don’t have to look into the future. All I have to do is look at Israel. The Jews are setting up their Israel model in Europe and they’re setting it up right here in America.
The Jews have been pipelining their New Palestinians into this country for quite some time now. And these New Palestinians are so dumb, they will allow the Jews to use them as cannon fodder against us, The American Nationals, who refuse to give up our guns or our freedom.
The Jews want a new citizen slave class, completely unarmed and controllable. And when a sh-tload of these citizen slave New Palastinians die trying to take this country, well, the Jews will just import some more.
I had more to say about this but this comment is way to long already.
Spot on, all points. Fun to watch breitbutters and infowhores commenters having a come to Jesus moment at the “sudden” realization they’ve been betrayed. Who saw it comin?! Lol
Bogus story. Fake news at its finest. Propaganda.
The federals keep having amnesty at regular intervals since Regan and it has really watered down the western culture in the US. I would invite all the bleeding-heart liberals to go to Mexico and experience the culture first-hand. A significant percentage of these people DO NOT like white males. Racism is rampant. I sure will not be going back.
Mexico built a wall on their border with Guatemala for a good reason. We need to build a wall and absolutely halt Mexican immigration into this country. We have NO common background.
Aren’t American born children Dreamers, too? Why are we once again giving preference to those that are not citizens?
This is some of the stupidest shit I’ve heard. Hope everyone’s doing well.
LoL. I typed 49 paragraphs about this article and Cleatus summed it up in one sentence.
LOL!
Macro vs. Micro.
Both well put.
Well put, Cleatus. Good here. (got a pulse anyway 🙂 )
There aren’t that many who think this way. Who knows if they were paid, or exist. As an Arizonan, I can say for sure. Our 30+ yr fight has been hard. Minutemen were created. In Tucson our great judge was murdered in a Safeway food strip mall. Our ppl we tried to elect were buried in illegal ballot box readings, and then their fight in court was consistantly put off. Sheriff Dupnik is the MOST corrupt sheriff ever. Was in office foreverrrrr. Left the hellhole, so I don’t even know if he’s still alive (very old). Odd how we keep getting outsmarted. Same with Cain.
Dreamers…
Well I got lucky last night.
No dreams…
I actually got some rest in peace sleep.
But I do have to tell you.
The dreams I’ve had lately have been invasive.
They’re of old dead friends ..dead family and even my grade school hot Catholic teachers after they ran out of nuns.
I still remember my last hot teacher..
Here name was Eve Plumb…
She would sit on top of the teacher’s desk and spread her legs so we could see her panties.
And she had the biggest breasts that a 7th grade Catholic boy could imagine.
I wonder what happened to her.
Back in those daze mini skirts were in style.
Well anyway…
So much for my Catholic training.
If I knew what I know now.
I would have hit on her so hard.
Then went to church in confessional.
Asked forgiveness for banging the teacher.
Cheers.