MORNING GLORY: Trump can end the Dreamer standoff by taking on sanctuary cities

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Is there a path emerging forthe “Dreamers”to finally receive legal status?Could a “regularization” of this group of more than 3 million illegal immigrants be near?

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., whom I interviewed on my radio show Wednesday, did not sound overly optimistic about passing the final FY 2026 appropriations bill — the one that funds the Department of Homeland Security — but he also did not rule out including “regularization” for the “Dreamers,” provided the same bill includes a funding knockout for “sanctuary citiesand states.”

PresidentDonald Trump, Thune noted, has long been open to regularizing the status of the Dreamers.If congressional Democrats want to actually accomplish something with their latest funding stunt, they should ask for legal status for the Dreamers while being prepared to apply pressure to sanctuary cities.

On Tuesday, I argued for just such a dealon this platform— a “Nixon-to-China” compromise that President Trump could pull off, and that no other Republican would dare to attempt, much less succeed in executing.

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The president showed the way with his “First Step Act” criminal justice reform law during his first term.Now he could again lead — this time to secure long-desired “regularization” for the Dreamers — reflecting a view shared by the vast majority of Americans: Illegal immigrants brought here as minors should not be deported to countries of origin, if those countries can even be identified.

On Wednesday, I proposed such a law to the majority leader, and his polite refusal reflects the two decades of scars nearly every Republican legislator carries from past immigration battles.

A hard-core group of deportation absolutists opposes regularization for the Dreamers, and their volume often obscures how small their numbers really are.That kind of strident rejection of commonsense solutions must, in turn, be rejected by the president and congressional Republicans.

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The coalition that returned the president to the Oval Office was built on common sense about the border.First, close it — as the president has done.Second, fund and finish the wall, which is underway.Third, detain and deport the most dangerous among the tens of millions of illegal immigrants in the country — a challenge made nearly insoluble by PresidentJoe Biden’s four years of border failure, but one now being addressed.

A “First Step on Immigration Act” would continue the commitments the president campaigned on, and it should not attempt to be a “comprehensive solution” to the illegal immigration mess left by the Biden administration.

Such “comprehensive” legislative schemes rarely make it through Congress, because either the political right or the political left — or both — rise up to shout them down, often with good reason.

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For one thing, these efforts over the past 20 years have promised a “pathway to citizenship,” which should never be available to someone who broke the law to get here.Millions wait patiently in line to legally enter the United States, and those who cut that line cannot be allowed to stay while also gaining the right to vote or access entitlements reserved for Americans who have paid decades of taxes into programs like Medicare and Social Security.

There are “first steps” toward making immigration enforcement rational, just as the first steps President Trump took in his second term were to close the border and as Congress’ first step was to fully fundconstruction of the border wall.Check and check.

The next steps should include granting “blue cards” to Dreamers — and to any other narrow category of illegal immigrant around which consensus exists — but only if those grants are paired with serious penalties for any city, county or state that refuses to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

cooperate with ICEto identify and deport illegal aliens who have been arrested and are in custody.

Common sense on compassion, combined with common sense on compliance with federal law, is the sweet spot for the next phase of solving theillegal immigration crisis.

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Democrats have handed President Trump the high ground in this debate.They believed they could makethe last appropriations fightabout ICE.Instead, the president and congressional Republicans should make it about the Dreamers and sanctuary cities.

Good policy can also be great politics.Consult virtually anypoll on immigration.A “First Step on Immigration Act” built on “80-20” positions — those that eight in 10 Americans agree with — is a great place to start.

�The Hugh Hewitt Show” heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel.Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen.�s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET.A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law.Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle.Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians.Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W.Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting.This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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