Donald Trump releases immigration policy paper (co-written by Ann Coulter?)

[SEE UPDATE BELOW]

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has released an immigration policy paper [1] and it isn't quite as dumb as I would have expected. However, there are several major problems with the paper and Trump's campaign that render it mostly useless:

1. At least one of his policies isn't needed (eVerify), others will never happen (a "wall" along the entire southern border, paid for by the Mexican government), and another would be extremely difficult (ending birthright citizenship).

2. Trump says he'd send criminal aliens home, but there's nothing in the paper describing what he'd do with the millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. who aren't criminal aliens. That's a very important issue to leave out of a discussion of his immigration policy.

3. Trump offers no implementation plan. Due to where his support is coming from, it would be very difficult for him to get most of the things on his list.

The most important issue is the last. A politician can say "I'll do this, I'll do that" all day long, but without a step-by-step plan detailing how they're going to get those things, all they're doing is trying to fool people. The items Trump lists would be very difficult to achieve. Unless Trump is going to declare himself Dictator of the U.S. (something no doubt some of his supporters would like), he's going to face incredible pushback against each of the items on his list. Sen. Jeff Sessions might have had input on Trump's policies, and Sessions has tried without luck to get some of the same things. If Trump could get the things on his list, why haven't Sessions and others like him been able to get them?

Imagine something like Trump's claim about sanctuary cities, that he'd "[c]ut-off federal grants to any city which refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement". How exactly would that work? Does the president even have much control over those grants? Under what circumstances would Trump be able to get Congress to go along?

Assuming President Trump would even have some control over such grants, would his opponents just sit idly by and let him do what he wants? I'm sure some people think they would, except in reality Trump would face an incredible amount of opposition and from very powerful forces.

Trump would have to beat the business community, religious leaders, non-profit groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Council of La Raza, the banking community, the Democratic Party, and the media among others. They'd wage a very smart and very dedicated campaign to oppose his efforts. Who'd be on Trump's side? The Trump base: a small segment of the U.S. that has little political power, that isn't as smart as Trump's opponents, and that suffers from emotional issues (such as Dunning-Kruger) that Trump's opponents don't suffer from. If those in the Tea Parties sphere were smart, sane, and dedicated enough to stop amnesty, they would have done it already. They aren't going to succeed just because they have an NYC real estate developer leading them.

Assuming Trump wants to actually solve the problem of massive/illegal immigration, he has to do various things:

1. Start appealing to a broader base than those who call themselves strong conservatives. Move away from Teaparty, move towards the mainstream of the country where there are tens of millions more voters.

2. Start appealing to and seeking the help of smarter people. Trump is going to be opposed by smart people who are paid to enable illegal immigration, such as Frank Sharry. No one associated with the Teaparty movement is capable of showing those like Sharry wrong about anything. Yes, they can snark to other conservatives, but they won't show those like Sharry wrong to most Americans. Showing those like Sharry wrong is absolutely necessary for any of Trump's immigration ideas to succeed, but he's not going to get that with his current target audience.

3. Start challenging leading amnesty supporters and undercutting them to their base. For instance, call out Hillary Clinton specifically, and do it in a way designed to appeal to her base such as by pointing out how her policies mean lower wages.

Unless Trump starts broadening his base and doing things in smarter ways, his immigration plan isn't worth much of anything.

7/9/17 UPDATE: Per New York Magazine [2], one of the authors of the paper might be Ann Coulter:

Although Trump didn’t dwell on policy details, (Steve Bannon) pitched in there, too. When Trump came under fire because his campaign hadn’t produced a single policy paper, Bannon arranged for (Sam Nunberg, a former Trump adviser) and Ann Coulter, the conservative pundit, to quickly write a white paper on Trump’s immigration policies. When the campaign released it, Coulter, without disclosing her role, tweeted that it was “the greatest political document since the Magna Carta.”

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[1] donaldjtrump . com/positions/immigration-reform

[2] nymag . com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/steve-bannon-is-out-of-trump-doghouse-leading-charge-against-robert-mueller.html