Presumptuous Politics : Aug 2, 2016

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Border Patrol's website offers advice on eluding ... Border Patrol

Immigrants who want to enter the U.S. illegally can learn how and where to avoid the Border Patrol from an advisory on the agency's own website, which critics say is evidence of the Obama administration's "schizophrenic" approach to enforcement.
Safety and sanctuary can generally be found at schools, churches, hospitals and protests, where Customs and Border Protection agents are barred under a "sensitive locations policy" from carrying out their duty of enforcing border security. In fact, the agency’s website states that actions at such locations can only be undertaken in an emergency or with a supervisor’s approval.
“The policies are meant to ensure that ICE and CBP officers and agents exercise sound judgment when enforcing federal law at or focused on sensitive locations, to enhance the public understanding and trust, and to ensure that people seeking to participate in activities or utilize services provided at any sensitive location are free to do so, without fear or hesitation,” the government website states in both English and Spanish.
While the explanation is apparently meant to show the deference Customs and Border Protection agents show to sensitive societal institutions, critics, including the Media Research Center, say it also tells illegal border crossers where to go if they are being pursued. Agents are barred from interviewing, searching or arresting suspected illegal immigrants in such locations.
“So, almost any illegal alien can escape arrest by either walking with a second person (a march), attending some type of class, or finding a nearby church, medical facility or school bus stop,” the Center wrote in a post bringing the advisory to light.
A “Frequently Asked Questions” section explains in detail what the Customs and Border Patrol’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, considers safe zones for illegal immigrants.

Schools, such as known and licensed day cares, pre-schools and other early learning programs; primary schools; secondary schools; post-secondary schools up to and including colleges and universities; as well as scholastic or education-related activities or events, and school bus stops that are marked and/or known to the officer, during periods when school children are present at the stop;
Medical treatment and health care facilities, such as hospitals, doctors’ offices, accredited health clinics, and emergent or urgent care facilities;
Places of worship, such as churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples;
Religious or civil ceremonies or observances, such as funerals and weddings;
During public demonstration, such as a march, rally, or parade.

Critics of the Obama administration’s immigration policies have long complained that it undermines the mission of border enforcement by imposing rules on agents that they say leave them unable to do their jobs.
“This administration has systematically and maliciously attacked and deconstructed all phases of border enforcement,” said Dan Stein, president of Federation for American Immigration Reform. “It’s to the point now where virtually nobody has to go home. ICE is no longer carrying out its core mission, of finding, identifying and removing illegal aliens from the country.
“Agents are in a state of despair,” Stein added. “They are being turned into nursemaids, chaperones and bus drivers.”
Telling people suspected of breaking the law where they can seek refuge makes no sense, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies.
“It's schizophrenic," Vaughan said. "What the Obama administration has done is to create sanctuaries for illegal aliens and to publicize them. That is fine for a social welfare agency, but not for a law enforcement agency. No law enforcement agency would ever want to broadcast where lawbreakers can go to be shielded from the consequences of their actions.”
The site does say the “sensitive locations policy” does not apply to places directly along the border, but warns its own agents that if they plan to move on a suspect in such a location near the border they “are expected to exercise sound judgment and common sense while taking appropriate action, consistent with the goals of this policy.”
The CBP website also provides a toll-free number and email address to allow illegal immigrants to report possible violations of the “sensitive locations” policy.

Trans Pacific Partnership Cartoons

Obama meeting Singapore PM, looks to boost TPP trade pact

WASHINGTON – The prime minister of Singapore is joining President Barack Obama at the White House to celebrate the 50th anniversary of U.S. diplomatic relations with the Southeast Asian city state. But the two leaders will also discuss a shared cause with less rosy prospects — the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal.
Singapore, a close U.S. partner, is one of the 12 nations in the TPP, an agreement key to Obama's effort to boost U.S. exports and build strategic ties in Asia. But Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's Washington visit starting Tuesday comes as opposition to the TPP intensifies in the United States. Both Republican contender Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who are competing to succeed Obama as president, are against it.
Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce late Monday, Lee urged its ratification, saying the pact would give the U.S. better access to the markets that account for 40 percent of global economic output. He said it would also add heft add heft to Washington's so-called "rebalance" to the Asia-Pacific.
"For America's friends and partners, ratifying the TPP is a litmus test of your credibility and seriousness of purpose," he said.
His sentiments are shared by Obama, who told Singapore's The Straits Times in an interview published Monday that the U.S. can't "turn inward" and embrace protectionism because of economic anxieties that have been drawn out by the presidential election.
The Obama administration says it remains determined to try and win congressional approval for TPP, but the chances of achieving that in the "lame duck" session after the Nov. 8 election and before the new president takes office Jan. 20 appear slim because of the depth of political opposition, not least from Obama's fellow Democrats.
The deal would eliminate trade barriers and tariffs, streamline standards and encourage investment between the 12 countries that include Mexico, Japan, Vietnam and Australia. But critics say the pact undercuts American workers by introducing lower-wage competition and gives huge corporations too much leeway.
Singapore, a city state of 5.7 million people, is heavily dependent on international trade for its prosperity. In 2004, it became the first Asian nation to strike a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.S. Last year, the bilateral trade in goods totaled $47 billion, with the U.S. enjoying a $10 billion surplus.
Singapore is also a strong advocate of the U.S. security role in Asia although it retains cordial ties with China too. Under Obama, the U.S. has deployed littoral combat ships in Singapore, and last December, deployed a P-8 Poseidon spy plane there for the first time, amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea.
Lee's meeting with Obama on Tuesday will be watched for reaction to an international tribunal ruling July 12 that invalidated China's historical claims to most of the disputed South China Sea. The U.S. says the ruling is binding but China has rejected it. Southeast Asian nations have been reluctant to speak out against Beijing.
Lee will be honored with a state dinner Tuesday evening — the first held for a Singaporean leader since October 1985, when Ronald Reagan hosted Lee's late father, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
The U.S. and Singapore opened diplomatic relations in 1966, a year after the U.S. recognized Singapore's independence from Malaysia.

Flood help weighs heavily in West Virginia governor's race

FILE - In this Tuesday June 28, 2016 file photo, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and Greenbrier owner Jim Justice, as he gestures during an interview at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. Justice, billionaire owner of The Greenbrier resort and Democratic nominee for governor, closed his hotel for business and opened it as a free shelter after the June 23 floods that killed 23 people, including 15 in Greenbrier County. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – After deadly floods washed thousands of West Virginians out of their homes last month, about 700 victims bypassed the shelter at the high school gym and got rooms at a luxury resort fit for royalty.
Jim Justice, billionaire owner of The Greenbrier resort and Democratic nominee for governor, closed his hotel for business and opened it as a free shelter after the June 23 floods that killed 23 people, including 15 in Greenbrier County.
Shooing away election talk, Justice said he put his gubernatorial campaign on hold for the two weeks following the floods to focus on victims. But a boost of good will from voters seems likely in return.
There's a long history of storms and other natural disasters making or breaking political leaders — President Barack Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie drew praise for dropping partisan differences and working together after Superstorm Sandy in 2012, while then-President George W. Bush never fully recovered from his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.
Justice, on the other hand, is just a candidate — but he is also West Virginia's richest man. His stately, white-columned hotel turned out to be right in the middle of the flood's worst destruction, putting him in a situation with little precedent in modern politics.
"Candidates have said things, made appeals or, normally, they criticize the response of elected officials, saying 'it's too slow, it's too little,' and that's how they win favor," said Virginia Tech associate public policy professor Patrick Roberts, who specializes in disaster politics. "But I can't think of an instance where someone had the personal resources to really offer."
Dating back to 1778, the 710-room Greenbrier resort has long been one of the jewels of West Virginia'stourism industry, hosting presidents and royalty and holding a once-secret underground bunker built for Congress in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War.
The Greenbrier's golf course temporarily became a flowing brown river, just two weeks before it was to have hosted a PGA Tour golf tournament — an event that was ultimately canceled.
Justice swears the storm's political implications never occurred to him.
"I don't do many things from a standpoint of what I think would be politically correct," Justice said. "From this standpoint, that hasn't even entered my mind, honest to Pete."
Justice's rival in November, Republican nominee Bill Cole, also stepped in to help after the floods, but with less fanfare. He helped secure tetanus shots for Nicholas County, brought port-a-potties to Clendenin, ran public service ads for donations at his car dealerships and collected 30 tons of goods for victims.
Cole traveled into flood-ravaged regions essentially every day for two weeks. He made some campaign appearances that had been on the books for a long time, but said it was a 90-10 split in favor of flood work.
Still, his efforts were overshadowed by Justice, who announced the reopening of The Greenbrier at a news conference with a banner reading "God Bless The Great People of West Virginia" draped behind him.
"I really went out of my way not to publicize it," Cole said, "then all of a sudden, it was, 'Where are you?' ... 'Why aren't you doing something?'"
Cole, the state Senate president, added in an interview, "To me, the fine line also exists if I'm out there looking for the TV cameras to get interviewed, then am I really helping or am I just looking for earned media?"
Cole said he's not judging Justice's actions. He considers the flood off limits politically.
Whether Justice's intentions are pure, political or somewhere in between, no one disputes that he made an impact on a region in ruin. Among other efforts, he has raised $1.9 million for flood relief through his charity, Neighbors Loving Neighbors, including checks from celebrities like NBA legend Jerry West and PGA Tour golfer Bubba Watson.
Another indirect benefit: Republican attacks temporarily fell silent against Justice for being delinquent on his bills, taxes, coal mine fines and other obligations.
Local residents sang Justice's praises when they walked the resort's halls to grab a free lunch late last month.
"It's great PR," said Marybeth Beller, a Marshall University political science professor. "The photos that played out in the (Charleston) Gazette-Mail (newspaper) showed ordinary working-class West Virginians all of sudden being able to stay at The Greenbrier with their families. It was a tremendous mark of generosity."
And whether he thought about it or not, likely a mark of good politics as well.

Trump vs. Clinton: Will Americans vote for the party of anger or the party of entitlement?

This is a huge weekend in The Bronx, with the rare “corpse flower” blooming at the New York Botanical Garden. The enormous plant flowers only once every 10 years and is noted for, as the garden gently puts it, the “infamous odor it releases during its brief 24-36-hour peak.”
Visitors say the odor resembles a “dead animal” or “rotting flesh,” while The Guardian newspaper found a 6-year-old boy who got a whiff and declared it “worse than a thousand pukes.”
Naturally, huge crowds are rushing to smell for themselves.
It could be a coincidence, but the bloom coincides with the start of the presidential general election, and there is another similarity as well: the contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is also a hold-your-nose affair that is attracting huge crowds.
Having spent most of the last two weeks at the parties’ spirited conventions, I return to earth not with an infamous odor but with an ominous feeling. It goes beyond the flaws that Clinton and Trump both feature and the devilish web of problems the next president will face.
My sense of dread stems from the fact that each party is speaking to a very different America. And not just about politics, but also about clashing concepts of pretty much everything.
What those two Americas have in common is receding by the day, while their differences intensify and multiply.
Here are some observations, and which party is which is obvious: We have the party of anger on one hand and the party of entitlement on the other. One party is fed up, the other wants to be fed. One wants free markets, the other wants free stuff.
These are vast generalizations, but they contain much more than a kernel of truth. These differences dictate the choice of nominees and the policies they pursue.
So one party wants lower taxes, the other wants higher taxes, one wants fewer regulations, the other wants more.
Go a step further, and it’s Blue Lives Matter vs. Black Lives Matter. One party vows to destroy radical Islam, the other refuses to say its name.
Conventions always aim to offer contrasts as motivation, but this year’s polarization is more dangerous because neither candidate has much crossover appeal. Trump and Clinton deserve each other because they share the distinction of having the highest negative ratings ever held by presidential nominees.

Business empress, now super-surrogate: Can Ivanka Trump be dad’s deal-closer?

Ivanka Trump has shown her strength as a surrogate for her father in the boardroom and on the campaign trail. But as Election Day draws closer, the Donald Trump team faces a decision on how to balance the 34-year-old’s weighty responsibilities – as executive vice president of The Trump Organization, and top campaign adviser and advocate.
If the response to her recent convention address is any gauge of her impact, pollsters suggest the Trump campaign may want to do whatever it can to get Ivanka on the trail.
“She [was] off the charts,” Lee Carter, a pollster with Maslansky + Partners, told Fox News in reviewing the focus-group reaction to Ivanka right after her speech. “The bottom line is she is an amazing spokeswoman for him.”
Ivanka is seen as someone who could make a powerful case for her dad, potentially softening his image among female voters and others with whom the Republican’s numbers have lagged.
Asked for comment on what's next for the influential Trump daughter – and mother of three – the campaign did not elaborate but suggested she'll play an important role.
“She will be an incredible asset to the campaign and we are grateful for her support,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told FoxNews.com.
The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.
Ivanka Trump's convention address in Cleveland was a clear message to independents and especially female voters as she touted her father’s record on hiring women, favoring quality over quotas and embracing talent.
“My father values talent. He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is color blind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job, period,” she told the audience at Quicken Loans Arena.
For many voters, it was their first chance to really hear from Ivanka.
But she's been an integral part of her father's business empire for years, and now the inner political circle – dual roles that could complicate efforts to deploy her on the trail.
Inside the Trump Organization, Ivanka primarily manages the real-estate components and is seen by many as the emerging face of the Trump brand. She is considered one of the few individuals Trump trusts to make deals on his behalf.
“I think her father really listens to her, and when I say listens to her I mean I think her father respects her a great deal, and not just because she’s his daughter,” businessman Carl Icahn told The New York Times.
Ivanka has publicly defended her father from claims of sexism and racism, while privately her influence over major campaign decisions is virtually unrivaled, a source with intimate knowledge of campaign operations told FoxNews.com. The source confirmed she played an influential role in the dismissal of former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
“She is less concerned about the politics of the campaign and more focused on protecting the Trump brand,” the source said.
Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner also played a critical role in his selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as Trump’s running mate, according to Time magazine.
Sarah Lenti, a Denver-based Republican consultant, suggested the Trump daughter proved an asset in Cleveland and should be deployed to whatever extent possible.
“I think [Trump] needs to play the woman’s card as much as possible. She was highly relatable and is extremely well-liked among working- and middle-class women,” Lenti said.
During a recent focus group of women, Lenti found a majority of them disliked both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump -- but related to Ivanka.
“They wanted to hear more from her on the issues. They were really impressed with her grace and what she has accomplished in life,” Lenti told FoxNews.com. “Older and middle-aged women don’t want to hear about abortion. They want to hear about how to balance work and life. [Ivanka] is a mom of three, she works a full-time job and she has her own business. She gets it.”
A clearer picture will emerge in coming weeks, but a CNN/ORC post-convention poll found Donald Trump made gains both in terms of his personal image and his ability to manage foreign policy.
He still has ground to make up with women. A post-convention CBS News poll showed Clinton expanding her lead among women (though trailing among men).
The Trumps may have a chance, however, to shift those numbers. A pre-convention, six-week Morning Consult poll found while Clinton led Trump 44-36 percent among women, as many as 21 percent were undecided.
Ivanka Trump's presence on the campaign trail inevitably creates a rivalry of sorts with the famous daughter on the other side of the aisle, Chelsea Clinton, who introduced her mother for the Democrats' closing convention night in Philadelphia last Thursday.
Two days earlier, Chelsea Clinton was asked during a Facebook Live event what she would like to ask Ivanka. Clinton said it would be how her father would pay for his proposals.
“How would your father do that given it’s not something he’s spoken about. There are no policies on any of those fronts on his website. Not last week. Not this week. The how question is super important,” she said.
“When you look at those issues that certainly affect our generation so strongly, I think my mom has stronger plans and a stronger record for actually delivering for women and families,” Clinton added.
In a recent interview with Politico, Ivanka acknowledged voters may view her as a product of heritage, not hard work:
“I don’t have a problem if somebody who has never met me wants to say that I wouldn’t be where I was today without my family because you know what? They may be right. They probably are right. Who the hell knows? It’s an impossible argument.”