Thread: Jared Kushner privately working on reshaping legal immigration

Jared Kushner privately working on reshaping legal immigration


BY FRANCO ORDOÑEZ

FEBRUARY 20, 2019 05:00 PM


During his State of the Union address, Trump said that legal immigrants "enrich our society in countless ways" and that he wants people to enter the country legally.


WASHINGTON As debate in public rages about illegal immigration and a border wall, Jared Kushner has been holding private meetings in the West Wing on ways to overhaul the legal immigration system, according to six people familiar with the conversations and documents obtained by McClatchy.

President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law is operating on at least two tracks -- the first is working with a small group studying specific ways to redistribute employment visas and the second is helping lead a series of “listening sessions” with about three dozen interest groups important to Trump to see if there is a position that Republicans can rally around before the 2020 elections.

“Jared has proven with the work he did on criminal justice reform and the other work he’s done that he’s willing to be bipartisan,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and an informal adviser to Trump. “He’s willing to listen carefully. And I think he has a very good sense that if you don’t put together an overwhelming majority of Republicans nothing will happen... If it’s possible, they’ll try to move forward.”

What is clear from conversations with participants and both current and former Trump officials is that Kushner has helped kicked off a fresh discussion on immigration that reflects a new paradigm in the White House. It’s a shift away from priorities of 2017 that sought to prevent the influx of foreign workers who could displace American workers in favor of a new approach preferred by more traditional Republicans, particularly those close to the corporate sector who are desperate to attract more foreign workers to fill U.S. factories and tech hubs.


It’s a different White House than it was a year ago, said a senior administration official. And Kushner, who likes to be part of the early stages of an exploratory process, became frustrated with the past debates on immigration that were focused on what stakeholders opposed. He wanted to help start a new discussion centered around what the sides have in common, a senior administration official said.

“What we want to do is kind of figure out what are the things that everyone agrees on,” the official said. “Where are the areas where there is disagreement and then what we can do is take all that to the president and then let him and the vice president, let them make decisions on what our policy will be.”

The White House says Kushner is working with other top officials on the effort, including Vice President Mike Pence, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Senior Adviser Stephen Miller. They are in Phase Two of a three-part process to see if there is enough consensus behind a policy that can be presented to the president.

Those who have worked with Kushner say he is willing to take on one of the toughest issues in Washington after proving his deal-making savvy by helping to reach bipartisan consensus on criminal-justice legislation and saving a fragile trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. The Mexican government recognized Kushner for his efforts in pulling together the new agreement, a revised NAFTA deal, with the highest honor for foreigners, the Order of the Aztec Eagle.

“It was Jared Kushner who was the ‘White House intervention’ that got all the parties to agree,” said Eric Miller, a trade consultant who advised the Canadian government in the talks and spoke to officials about Kushner’s role. “The guy fundamentally is a pragmatist. He is someone who is able to listen and mediate certain interests. But the other thing that is indispensable is he has the president’s absolute trust.”

While Kushner has floated to the advocacy community that Trump was willing to give 1.8 million Dreamers -- the young people brought to the United States illegally when they were children -- permanent protections from deportation in exchange for a larger border security deal, those involved in talks with Kushner say he’s more focused on reworking the system for legal immigration.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley emphasized to McClatchy that the president’s goals are to ensure the right foreign workers are brought to the country by replacing low skilled immigration with a merit based system that prioritizes immigrants with special skills.

According to meeting agendas obtained by McClatchy, those invited to sessions with Kushner come from some of Trump’s core constituencies in the worlds of religion, law enforcement, agriculture and business. They include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Heritage Foundation, Association of Builders and Contractors, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Council on National Policy, George W. Bush Center and Select Milk Producers.

They meet across from the Oval Office in the Roosevelt Room where the president and staff often hold important meetings. Brooke Rollins, who was brought in last year to help Kushner in the Office of American Innovation, helps lead the sessions and introduces Kushner, who gives opening remarks.
“What do you want? What do you support?” Kushner asks, encouraging those involved to share policy papers.

One participant described Kushner as listening a lot and encouraging others to speak. He is less interested in the finer details of immigration policy and focused on reaching a consensus, that participant said. Two people involved said Kushner asks people to talk about what they want instead of what they oppose.

“He’s a smart guy,” one of the participants said. “But he doesn’t care about the issues. He’s there to find out where the deal is. Where is the sweet spot?”

The senior administration official said the White House is rethinking some policies that it supported before, such as the Sen. Tom Cotton’s RAISE Act, which would institute a merit-based system to determine who is admitted to the country -- that the White House continues to support -- but would also slash legal immigration.

“The president said many times he wants to raise immigration,” the official said.

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Such language is concerning to conservative immigration groups. Indeed, between Kushner’s business background and the large number of guests with corporate interests, conservatives are worried that the changes Kushner is pursuing run counter to Trump’s “Hire American” priorities.

“There is a real dance going on in the White House on all the legal immigration issues as they work on their vision for reform,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, who is in regular discussions with the administration. “It’s hard for me to tell sometimes what is based on actual policy goals and what is meant to assuage an interest group and who is just being stroked and whose ideas have been convincing to Kushner and his group.”

Adding to that anxiety is the feeling that Kushner has edged out Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief architect on some of the toughest proposals and a favorite in conservative circles, in the policy area on which Miller is best known.

“That is how you have to understand it,” said a former Trump official who remains in contact with White House officials. “And look, Steve may be willing to go along with it, because he’s there for the long game. And there is always other battles to fight. He’s more strategic than people think he is. But there is no doubt that he’s not getting what he wants out of this move.”

The White House emphasized that discussions are still in the early stages. It could take weeks or months before anything is presented to the president. Trump may also decide not to do anything with the information if they can’t get enough buy in.

“I wouldn’t want people to have their hopes raised too much,” the senior administration official said. “ I wouldn’t want people to get too scared. I just think it’s a function of doing what a White House should do, which is engage with the experts in the community, understand the range of ideas and then take that landscape and give it to the president with some decision points and then we can finalize what the president’s full policy is on the subject.”

Trump has hinted at some of this in recent speeches, including during his State of the Union address.
“I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally,” Trump said during the address to a joint session of Congress.

Many thought he was ad-libbing because the line was not in his prepared remarks. But Trump didn’t back down. When pressed the next day by a small group of reporters over whether his comments reflected a change in policy, Trump said “yes” and then cited low employment numbers and business needs for workers.

“I need people coming in because we need people to run the factories and plants and companies that are moving back in,” Trump said. “We need people.”

Business groups have spent the last few weeks trying to determine whether his words will translate into action. Robyn Boerstling who oversees immigration for the National Association of Manufacturers, which handed the administration a report last week arguing 500,000 jobs in manufacturing need to be filled, sees at least an opening from Trump to talk about the need for workers.

Another smaller working group that Kushner is leading, that also includes Rollins, is investigating specific changes to employment visas. Those include giving less weight to family connections and more weight to potential job skills.

Kushner also is looking at increasing caps on employment-based visas and reworking the temporary visa system to ensure that those who are here on temporary visas don’t automatically get permanent ones.
Gingrich said everyone knows the system needs to be overhauled, but Trump won’t risk alienating his base. The big question is whether there is a package of changes that fits what the country needs, is acceptable to the Republican base and that a substantial number of Democrats can support, he said.

“You’re going into a presidential election,” Gingrich said. “You’re not going to go out there and try to do this and have it fall apart.”




President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with American manufacturers in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019, in Washington. Trump was signing an executive order pushing those who receive federal funds to “buy American.”JACQUELYN MARTINAP PHOTO

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/pol...226462025.html

We need to see a prosecution evolve from the current investigations into Jared Kushner's financial dealings. Anything to get him the heck out of the White House!

We have PLENTY of legal immigration already. We want it reduced. We want Student Visa program reduced.

We want the refugee, asylum, TPS and illegal alien programs defunded and terminated. We want them off our soil.

We want birthright citizenship ended.

We want Public Charge enforced.

We want Judges and Governor's to stop letting illegal aliens out of jail and we want them handed immediately over to ICE to be placed in Federal Tent City on Federal Land where they are put before a panel of Federal Judges where they are sentenced and/or deported on the spot. They are NOT U.S. citizens, get them out of the local and state jurisdiction and do not co-mingle them with legal citizens in our local and state jails and prisons. They are not eligible for the same rights as a legal U.S. citizen and this program needs to get implemented and put in-force.

We want illegal aliens, visa overstays, TPS, refugees and asylum liars sent back home.

We want ALL government funded benefits and programs terminated for every illegal alien and deem their Driver's Licenses Null and Void.

We do not want DACA, amnesty #8, or any path to stay here.

We want this massive invasion of our country, that has been going on for decades, ended and ended now.

We do not want "asylum" at Ports of Entry. They are NOT vetted and approved PRIOR to coming here and we cannot encourage 2 billion people on the planet and their UAC's to breech our borders under the "guise" of asylum. It is a fraud, it is a lie, and it is a massive burden on the American people, our financial resources and our peace and prosperity.

WE WANT JARED & IVANKA OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. WE DID NOT VOTE FOR THEIR POLICIES AND TRUMP LIED TO ALL OF US.

IT IS A PRIVILEGE TO COME TO THIS COUNTRY...NOT A RIGHT. WE WANT THIS STOP, IT IS CRUSHING THIS COUNTRY AND ALTERING OUR FUTURE NEGATIVELY FOR OUR FUTURE.

THEY NEED TO GO HOME AND BUILD AMERICA ON OUR SOIL. NOT FLEE AND ABANDON THEIR LAND AND LEAVE IT TO WASTE!

WE WANT JARED & IVANKA OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. WE DID NOT VOTE FOR THEIR POLICIES AND TRUMP LIED TO ALL OF US.

So true, Beezer.

President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law is operating on at least two tracks -- the first is working with a small group studying specific ways to redistribute employment visas and the second is helping lead a series of “listening sessions” with about three dozen interest groups important to Trump to see if there is a position that Republicans can rally around before the 2020 elections.

I don't know this for sure but I wouldn't be surprised to find groups like La Raza and MALDEF included.

WH Working on Immigration Package to Increase Foreign Worker Visas


Jared Kushner
:

Thu, FEB 21st2019 @ 8:53 am EST

White House officials are building on Pres. Trump’s call to increase legal immigration, according to a new report from McClatchy. According to the report, Pres. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been meeting with a number of business groups and other government officials to devise an immigration plan that would increase the number of employment based visas for foreign workers.

The McClatchy report describes what is a three-part process, and White House officials are moving into the second process, which includes gauging support. In addition to Kushner, Vice President Mike Pence and Senior White House Policy Advisor Stephen Miller are both working with Kushner on the effort.

One thing is clear, the approach that White House officials are now taking is a change in direction on immigration policy from what Pres. Trump ran on as a candidate and expressed during his first 18 months in office. In the spring of 2017, Pres. Trump endorsed legislation offered by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), the RAISE Act, which would reduce legal immigration by about 40% and transform the existing system into a merit-based system. According to McClatchey, the White House is reconsidering its support for the RAISE Act, instead seeking to increase overall immigration levels.

A senior White House official was quoted as saying, “The president said many times he wants to raise immigration.”

The McClatchy report emphasizes Kushner's role in pushing the course reversal, but also paints him as little interested in actual policy and more in brokering a political deal among Washington's power players.

One participant described Kushner as listening a lot and encouraging others to speak. He is less interested in the finer details of immigration policy and focused on reaching a consensus, that participant said....'He’s a smart guy,' one of the participants said. 'But he doesn’t care about the issues. He’s there to find out where the deal is. Where is the sweet spot?'

For more, see McClatchy.

https://www.numbersusa.com/news/wh-w...n-worker-visas

Report: Jared Kushner Driving Immigration Policy Debate in White House

February 22, 2019 ~ Ann Corcoran

For me, as goes Stephen Miller, so goes the nation!***

Miller, if you don’t know, was Senator Jeff Sessions chief aide on immigration when Sessions was the Senator holding his finger in the dyke to stem the flood of illegal and LEGAL immigration flooding America.



Is Kushner side-lining immigration expert Stephen Miller?


The Dems want the “new American” voters and powerful business interesting in the Republican Party want a large pool of immigrant laborers to compete with American workers for jobs (at all levels!).

Now we are learning that Miller, who is one of only a few who went from the campaign to the White House with Trump (and survived, so far) is being sidelined as Jared Kushner, the first son-in-law, wants to practice his bipartisan deal making skills on the issue of immigration.
Here is McClatchy reporting on Kushner’s latest play,
Jared Kushner privately working on reshaping legal immigration

And, pushing Stephen Miller to the sidelines?

WASHINGTON

As debate in public rages about illegal immigration and a border wall, Jared Kushner has been holding private meetings in the West Wing on ways to overhaul the legal immigration system, according to six people familiar with the conversations and documents obtained by McClatchy.

President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law is operating on at least two tracks — the first is working with a small group studying specific ways to redistribute employment visas and the second is helping lead a series of “listening sessions” with about three dozen interest groups important to Trump to see if there is a position that Republicans can rally around before the 2020 elections.
[….]


What is clear from conversations with participants and both current and former Trump officials is that Kushner has helped kicked (sic) off a fresh discussion on immigration that reflects a new paradigm in the White House. It’s a shift away from priorities of 2017 that sought to prevent the influx of foreign workers who could displace American workers in favor of a new approach preferred by more traditional Republicans, particularly those close to the corporate sector who are desperate to attract more foreign workers to fill U.S. factories and tech hubs.
[….]


According to meeting agendas obtained by McClatchy, those invited to sessions with Kushner come from some of Trump’s core constituencies in the worlds of religion, law enforcement, agriculture and business. They include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Heritage Foundation, Association of Builders and Contractors, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Council on National Policy, George W. Bush Center and Select Milk Producers.

I want to remind readers that the Heritage Foundation may be good on illegal immigration, but they sure did get wobbly on refugees awhile back, so I wouldn’t count on them being your voice at these meetings. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce openly supports more immigration of all kinds. I don’t know what the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s views are on immigration, do you?

Kushner wants a deal!

“He’s a smart guy,” one of the participants said. “But he doesn’t care about the issues. He’s there to find out where the deal is. Where is the sweet spot?”

The senior administration official said the White House is rethinking some policies that it supported before, such as the Sen. Tom Cotton’s RAISE Act, which would institute a merit-based system to determine who is admitted to the country — that the White House continues to support — but would also slash legal immigration.




“The president said many times he wants to raise immigration,” the official said.



Such language is concerning to conservative immigration groups. Indeed, between Kushner’s business background and the large number of guests with corporate interests, conservatives are worried that the changes Kushner is pursuing run counter to Trump’s “Hire American” priorities.

“There is a real dance going on in the White House on all the legal immigration issues as they work on their vision for reform,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, who is in regular discussions with the administration. “It’s hard for me to tell sometimes what is based on actual policy goals and what is meant to assuage an interest group and who is just being stroked and whose ideas have been convincing to Kushner and his group.”

Kushner edges-out Stephen Miller!

Adding to that anxiety is the feeling that Kushner has edged out Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief architect on some of the toughest proposals and a favorite in conservative circles, in the policy area on which Miller is best known.
“That is how you have to understand it,” said a former Trump official who remains in contact with White House officials. “And look, Steve may be willing to go along with it, because he’s there for the long game. And there is always other battles to fight. He’s more strategic than people think he is. But there is no doubt that he’s not getting what he wants out of this move.”

The White House emphasized that discussions are still in the early stages. It could take weeks or months before anything is presented to the president. Trump may also decide not to do anything with the information if they can’t get enough buy in.

More here.

While we are beguiled by the media on the subject of the Smollett hoax, a serious policy shift could be occurring in the Trump White House.

By the way, NumbersUSA, the largest grassroots group concerned with protecting American workers by keeping immigration numbers low is very concerned by what they are hearing. See one story here.
What do you do? Let the White House know what you think about the Kushner coup going on under the President’s nose. Do it today and every day! Your job is to make your voices louder than those of the Open Borders forces and thus keep the White House on track!

***Stephen Miller is my barometer. I can’t imagine him staying if the Trump White House gets too wobbly on immigration and if he is fired (like Bannon and others) then you know it’s all over for those of us who want to see immigration numbers lowered.

https://fraudscrookscriminals.com/20...n-white-house/

If this all plays out like Jared Kushner wants, a lot of Trump's base will abandon him in the 2020 election! Mark my word on that!

Kushner Cos. picks up $1.1 Billion suburban multifamily portfolio, 6,000 rental units