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Continetti: GOP Focusing Immigration Debate on Families Would Put Dems on the Defensive

Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti said Wednesday that President Donald Trump and Republicans have not lost leverage on immigration if they take steps to keep families at the border intact.

Trump signed an executive order earlier Wednesday to keep families from being separated while their immigration cases are adjudicated, but he said Congress needs to pass a legislative fix. On Fox News' "Special Report," Continetti noted that neither party has a consensus on immigration and that the unpopularity of separating families was a political loss for Trump, while the president could still win by sticking to his zero-tolerance policy.

"Trump found himself on the wrong end of a 70-30 issue. But now the problem is for the Democrats because separating families may be unpopular; zero tolerance, however, is relatively popular," Trump said. "If the Democrats find themselves attacking a zero-tolerance policy while Republicans are doing their best to unify the families and keep them in detention together, I think the Democrats come up short."

In response to clips of senators making statements about immigration, Continetti said Republicans haven’t lost leverage if they pass narrow legislation addressing families at the border. He pointed to Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) as examples of those in red states who could vote with Republicans to solve the problem of families being separated.

"There would be many red-state Democrats that are going to look at the polls in their own states and say, 'if the issue is just the families, we should be addressing this through legislation,'" Continetti said.

NPR’s Mara Liasson brought up the matter of voting on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), but Continetti said that issue would not matter compared to families being separated.

"Once the pictures of the families came to the fore, that is the issue," Continetti said.

Liasson asked about the concerns moderate Republicans had about finding a DACA compromise, but Continetti said that issue had effectively been wiped out by families at the border being separated. He said Democrats would be playing defense on the issue of families if Republicans were to force them to vote on a it.

"We are talking about a 70-30 issue here with families. This is of overriding importance," Continetti said. "Trump has done his part. If the Republicans say 'we are for keeping families together,' I think that puts the Democrats on the defensive."