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If Congress fails, again, to rewrite immigration legislation, Trump has little choice but to uphold the laws on the books.
Democrats and Republicans want different things when it comes to federal spending and when it comes to immigration reform. Those two disagreements are interacting in a fairly unpredictable way: Democrats, who are the minority party in Congress, are threatening to force a government shutdown (not that the government ever actually shuts down) if they do not get their way. That’s the leverage the minority party has, and the Democrats believe, based on experience, that the Republicans probably will be blamed for any shutdown.
Shutdowns are not a new development in American government. There have been 18 occasions upon which federal government funding has expired in the past 40 years, and similar things happen at the state level: Maine, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania all had gaps in 1991 alone. New Jersey and Maine had them last year. Life went on more or less as expected in the Garden State and in the . . . whatever they call Maine.
Democracy is supposed to be adversarial, and while we may lament the current practice of scorched-earth congressional politics, in which every fleeting parliamentary advantage is exploited to maximum effect (a bipartisan failing), it is natural and legitimate that the minority party relies on the tools with which its members are presented. Our constitutional order assumes negotiation, hostile though it may be, in the interest of protecting the rights and interests of political minorities, including temporary minorities.
It also relies on the rule of law.
Read the rest from Kevin D. Williamson HERE.
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