With the new year comes new change, and one that we may bring unforeseen changes. Recently, we have all heard about President Trump’s impeachment, with the U.S. House of Representatives passing articles of impeachment against the president in late 2019. There is still a question in the U.S. Senate and whether President Trump will actually be removed from office. The questions will follow then if President Trump is indeed forced to leave the presidency. How will President Trump’s removal from the presidential seat impact immigration policies, and what will come of his strict immigration agenda? First things first, Trump still faces an unlikely removal from office. Even then, we have to remember that Vice President Mike Pence would step in as the new President of the United States. A potential Pence presidency would require a close look at his views on major immigration issues. We can start by identifying the hot-button immigration talking points going into the 2020 elections. Luckily, you can find out more about what is currently trending amongst U.S. immigration law topics in our previous blogs found on this website. In a previous blog posts, we covered the 2020 major talking points being: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) The Central American Humanitarian Crisis (and ICE’s involvement) Construction of the U.S.-Mexico Border DACA has been a hot-button issue since the Obama administration. Expanded DACA was subjected to federal court scrutiny during the Obama presidency, and DACA has been under constant federal litigation during the Trump administration. In all likelihood, a Mike Pence presidency would likely carry with it a similar stance to that of Trump on DACA. Trump has taken the position that the southern border wall’s construction is a requirement to any DACA “deal,” with President Trump telling Fox News that “there is no deal on DACA, without a wall.” The Central American migrant humanitarian crisis has been an important topic during the Democratic primary debates. Several Democratic Party candidates have gone on record stating that they would make organizational changes to ICE. Senator Bernie Sanders has mentioned his effort to abolish ICE entirely. Republican Vice-President Mike Pence has stated otherwise. In July 2019, after visiting two ICE detention centers in Texas, he tweeted “today we took reporters to a detention facility on the border for families and children and all told us they were being treated well.” The video, which includes Pence visiting one of the detention centers, can be found here. Surely, impeachment and removal of President Trump would not change much with regard to the executive’s stance on Central American migrants. Vice-President Pence has often mentioned his desire to move forward with the construction of a physical wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, citing his belief that erecting the wall is a necessary measure in the United States’ effort to curtail unlawful immigration and border security issues. Pence has often thrown blame back at Democrats, stating that their refusal to negotiate a deal for the border wall has caused more harm than good. But what does this all mean? Assuming President Trump is removed from the presidency, will “President Pence” follow directly in his footsteps? Could the Vice President be following the party line, maintaining the same rhetoric as his colleagues? The outcome all depends first on whether President Trump remains in office, with the Senate hearing having commenced on January 3rd. SOURCES: Pence’s Tweet on immigration center: https://twitter.com/VP/status/1149879269373300736 Pence Visit detention center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDfTbAMF7JA Mike Pence Border Wall and DACA Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Ds_W9DcrU
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