Krauthammer’s Take: Trump Proposing a Compromise on Immigration Reminiscent of ‘Nixon to China’

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V8LM4vN_hIc

Charles Krauthammer said that Trump is in a good position to get a favorable compromise on immigration because he has been setting up the negotiation by being a hardliner:

This is a Nixon to China kind of proposition. A guy who has been hardline, has been accused of just about everything, talked about border enforcement with people going around in trucks deporting people. If this president proposes — and you can see from his early indication when it comes to the dreamers, the young people brought here as children, he wants to legalize them. That would be the starting point. Then you get to the point, what to do with the others, who are non-criminals? The deal has been waiting now for years and years. The Republicans would offer that, which is an enormous concession, but only if the Democrats support airtight, strong border security. That means not just a fence or a wall or security at the border, but things like a system to verify citizenship inside the country and a visa tracking program. If you get that, you can get a national consensus and put the immigration issue behind us.

If you can get the agreement, the problem over time will disappear with the changing of the generations. I think if you came over illegally with children, you don’t deserve to be a participant in the political system. Yes, we will give you the rights to stay and work and all that, but the citizenship will go to your children, who were raised here. Over a generation, the problem ends up behind us. Nixon made his reputation, elected to the Senate by being incredibly anti-communist and anti-Chinese, and he went to China; he was the only guy who could do it. Anybody else would’ve been called a collaborator and worse. If Trump wants to propose this, I think it will be a breakthrough.