Backlash against border policy grows, but furor could help Trump in midterms

Protesters march to border migrant facility In the blink of an eye, the uproar over immigration has become a major midterm election issue. And that’s precisely the way President Trump wants it. With some prominent Republicans and conservative media outlets slamming the president’s policy of separating migrant families at the border, you might have thought the White House would be looking to quickly defuse the controversy. That’s not happening. In fact, Politico reports that Stephen Miller and other top administration officials are planning a further crackdown on legal and legal immigration, with the goal, according to a Republican close to the White House, being "to arm Trump with enough data and statistics by early September to show voters that he fulfilled his immigration promises — even without a border wall or any other congressional measure." The GOP plan had been to run on tax cuts and a booming economy. But the president has apparently decided that he needs to motivate his base voters to show up in what is shaping up as a tough election. As Corey Lewandowski, who works for Mike Pence’s PAC, told The New York Times : "People don’t turn out to say thank you. If you want to get people motivated, you’ve got to give them a reason to vote. Saying ‘build the wall and stop illegals from coming in and killing American citizens’ gives them an important issue." And the president stuck to his guns yesterday, saying that the problem is migrants who bring […]

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