Posted on 01/30/2019 5:07:09 AM PST by be-baw
Jared Kushner ran a white board planning session last week at the White House with the Koch network and other people who worked with him on criminal justice reform. The purpose: to see if the administration can replicate the approach they took to pass criminal justice reform to overhaul America’s immigration system.
“They would like to try and replicate at some level a bipartisan coalition on immigration issues, something paired with border security as well,” said Koch Industries senior vice president Mark Holden, who attended the meeting.
A senior White House official familiar with Kushner’s thinking said it’s too early to tell what he’s going to do, but confirmed he held the planning meeting last week.
Behind the scenes: The meeting lasted a few hours, according to Holden. The Texas Public Policy Foundation's Josh Trevino and Brooke Rollins, who works in the Office of American Innovation and was a key player in criminal justice reform talks, also attended.
The white board session was one of several immigration-related meetings the White House hosted over the past week. Kushner and his team met with faith leaders, Hispanic leaders and prominent conservatives. Some have expressed skepticism that Kushner — a New York liberal with no background in immigration policy or politics — could succeed where so many of his predecessors have failed.
Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin, who met with the president and other conservative leaders last Wednesday, told Axios: “Border security and immigration reform are much more complex issues than criminal justice reform. … It would be wise [for the White House] to be in touch with the president’s base as any such legislative deal is being created. Many of the strongest parts of the president’s base do not want amnesty, and the president’s promise to secure the border is what drew those voters to him from early in his campaign.”
(The White House has, however, been meeting with conservative movement leaders — including Martin — who regard themselves as representatives of the base. Vice President Pence attended the meeting with Martin last week.) Daniel Garza, president of the Koch network’s LIBRE Initiative and a supporter of Kushner’s approach, attended a separate White House meeting with Hispanic leaders. Garza said Kushner used a quote he presumably gathered from his ongoing efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. “At one point during the meeting, Jared quoted [former Israeli President] Shimon Peres and said something along the lines of ‘You don’t arrive at peace by meeting with just friends,’” Garza said.
Between the lines: Two senior White House officials told Axios they are stunned that Kushner thinks he could be the mediator who solves one of the most intractable problems in American politics for the past 20 years: immigration reform. One senior White House official told Axios that Kushner's success in criminal justice reform has no bearing whatsoever on his ability to succeed on immigration.
“He convinced Democrats to support something they already agreed with," the senior official told Axios.
Supporters of Kushner point out that if he didn't persuade Trump to move from a harsh law-and-order candidate to being open to — and ultimately supportive of — criminal justice reform, then the effort would have died.
The other side: Two other senior White House officials familiar with Kushner’s plans told Axios that the president asked Kushner to join with Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to negotiate immigration on behalf of the White House. One of those officials said Kushner has almost exclusively been talking to Republicans to figure out what they want out of a reform package. His planning sessions are “about defining what we’re for, not what we’re against.”
“Right now [Kushner is] just trying to understand the Republican position so that we can take all those views to the president and he can make an informed decision,” the same official said on Tuesday.
“This is more of a long-term policy process, not a resolution for the shutdown,” the official added. “And amnesty was not discussed at any of these meetings. This is really about how do we reform our broken immigration system.”
As Axios has reported, Kushner relayed to White House officials an idea from Republican Sen. James Lankford: Give a path to green cards for illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and who are currently protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Axios: "The President asked us to take a team approach, with the VP taking the lead. That team has done fantastic work and we are all pulling the same direction to carry out the President’s strong border agenda. The negotiation is far from over, and at this stage, there’s no way to know what that legislation will ultimately look like. Whatever the outcome, though, you can be sure the the President will protect the American people."
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a quote from acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney
I wish Jared and Ivanka would take a hike!
Democrats want open borders. They lie about everything else. A tradeoff of amnesty in return for real border security could have been done any time in the last 30 years. The hangup has always been that Democrats insist on amnesty immediately with border security pushed into the indefinite future, with every intention of reneging on the promise the moment amnesty is signed. If Jared does not understand this, he is a fool.
It would be wise for them to connect with the base....
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Because both sides sticking to their base has been so effective. Everyone wanted to hire a business guy. Well, let’s see if they can solve this like a business would.
Give the guy a chance.
See corruption works like this; you can't do anything good in this country without throwing some group under the bus, I hate Trump's entire staff.
Jared Kushner is the reason that Trump likely won’t get a second term. Trump needs to send that liberal puke far away to live in a cave until he is out of office.
This is bad. Trump needs to put SIL Jared in charge of soem cultural exchange or something.
Well now lookie here who pops up with green cards for a whole 'nother generation of illegals.
It does not take a genius to predict that, if Kushner is stupid enough to offer amnesty, the democrats will be smart enough to take the offer.
I was just listening to Fox and Friends, and the democrat was sincerely pleading for technology that would detect drugs at the ports of entry.
According to his understanding, the drug cartel would not be so crude as to transport drugs across the border at some desolate location.
I was watching a discussion, and in the melee, someone said drugs were pouring across the border. There was a voiceover: “Yes, at the ports of entry.”
No, the drug cartels would not dare to engage in such underhanded behavior.
As for Kushner, I have trouble trusting a person who looks and moves like a mannequin.
Kushner is just another neophyte putting the cart before the horse. It is always the problem of the liberal mindset to focus only on those who have snuck into the country. It’s obvious it is a deliberate liberal strategy. This time control, control, control the border first, damn it. Border control better be first this time. I don’t even want to read about ‘green card’ amnesty at this point.
We’ve already got
1) Supposed help for inner city blacks converted into a massive tax giveaway to urban slumlords — and is there a bigger urban slumlord in the country than Kushner himself?
2) A big tax write off for Manhattan liberals who hire private nannies — and doesn’t that sound like the Kushner/Trump household and all their friends?
3) Lots and lots of congressional capital expended on getting Obama’s criminal reform bill passed (letting lots of violent and otherwise unsavory criminals out onto the streets early) in some sort of twisted vengeance for Kushner’s father having been sent to some months in a gentleman’s prison.
4) A Middle East political policy and region-wide negotiations designed to favor Kushner family friend Netanyahu and his Saudi allies.
5) The massive-amnesty “comprehensive immigration reform” that we the people managed to stop cold in congress a couple of times on tap next — as a trade to the Kochs for the support of their big-dollars network in 2020?
Let’s hope not. Kushner a pox on the Trump admin.
I think there is even money that Mueller’s dirt on Kushner using his position to get out of his worst-in-history RE deal via a bailout from the corrupt Deutsche Bank is behind Trump not really fighting back against Mueller. (”Daddy, you can’t let them indict Jared!”)
Ivanka and Mr Ivanka should be sent packing back to NY where they belong. We didn’t vote for either one of them. They have had a very bad influence on Trump.
Methinks Kushner’s ego is getting in the way of what is best for the country.
Kushner and his wife should go back to NYC.
Liberals like them have no business in President Trump’s administration.
I think if there is to be a poll taken it would be to ask Trump’s base support if they approve of both Kushner’s engaging in meetings and policies.
I would bet a large majority would state they disapprove and nobody in his administration would surely come out and say this.
what the heck does the Koch network have to do with being in on a meeting about criminal justice reform? other than they want to make ways they can enrich themselves and not be considered on the wrong side of the law though they likely are doing wrongful things?
“...to get out of his worst-in-history RE deal via a bailout from the corrupt Deutsche Bank...”
You will have to give me a clue about what that means.
How stupid. Illegals would get amnesty, and leftist groups would STILL due to block ANY wall construction, while the millions become legalized permanently. Just use the DoD NOW!
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