September 5 - Trump Crushes the "Dreamers"; The Likely Electoral Blowback From Rescinding DACA; Texas Politicians Reverse Secessionist Rhetoric as They Ask for Federal Aid

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the announcement by Attorney General Sessions that the Trump Administration is rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, DACA, in yet another reversal of an Obama program that afforded the so-called “Dreamers” who arrived in the U.S. as children, a refuge from deportation and an ability to go to school and college, to work, and serve in the military. A well-known authority on the policy and politics of immigration, Angela Maria Kelley, the Senior Strategic Adviser on Immigration at the Open Society Foundation joins us to discuss the reasons why the DACA program was established and why Trump reversed his earlier pledges to deal with the “Dreamers” he professed to love with heart. We will examine the flimsy legalistic arguments from right wing governors in Texas and other Republican states Trump is using as the excuse for this cruel and unnecessary act, and why Trump, Sessions and Stephen Miller prioritize pandering to a minority of far right nativists instead of respecting the will of the vast majority of Americans.

Part 2

Then we assess the likely political backlash and electoral blowback from Trump’s highly divisive move that appears to be motivated by racism and is a slap in face to all Latinos. Antonio Gonzales, President of the largest and oldest non-partisan Latino voter participation organization in the U.S., the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, joins us to discuss the extent to which Trump has awoken a sleeping giant and that in 2018, Republicans are bound to be punished at the polls, with the likely loss of their majority in the House.

Part 3

Then finally, with anti-government sentiment and secessionist rhetoric rampant in the state of Texas, we examine the sudden reversal by Texas politicians away from vilifying the federal government to now wanting federal aid for the recovery of the areas around Houston and the Gulf coast following the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Joining us is Wayne Slater, a political writer emeritus for The Dallas Morning News who has covered the administrations of every Texas Governor from Bill Clements, Ann Richards, George W. Bush and Rick Perry to the current avowed “Christian” Governor Greg Abbott.