Montini: Jeff Flake should ask Donald Trump if his in-laws are ‘dreamers’

Before Sen. Jeff Flake leaves Congress he wants to make sure the "dreamers" get to stay in America.

It has been a long, difficult, disheartening, ugly process. And it’s not anywhere close to being finished.

Flake is a thoughtful man. And perhaps an ambitious one, not closing the door on a run for president in 2020.

And while he has been critical of President Donald Trump, he is uncomfortable being rude.

More American than dreamers?

Not so for me.

After many years of dealing with self-righteous politicians (and being dealt with in grammar school by the genuinely righteous Sisters of St. Joseph) rudeness comes naturally to me.

But not for Flake.

He would not ask the president, for example, as I would:

Who is more American, the 800,000 or so dreamers who were brought to our country as children and grew up here … or Melania Trump’s two parents?

A rude question or a valid one?

The young people living under the protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program instituted under President Obama are standing at the edge of the deportation cliff.

The president promises to push them off if he doesn’t get the $25 billion he wants for his border wall.

Not long ago, the dreamers got a bit of a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court. But their situation remains unresolved.

Meantime, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, the First Lady’s parents, have retired from their native Slovenia and are living in the U.S. They have green cards and could soon become citizens, most likely based on the family reunification process that President Trump derisively (and incorrectly) calls “chain migration.”

Benefits of 'chain migration'

It’s a program he wants to end -- now that the in-laws are here, safe and sound.

Meantime, to save the dreamers, Sen. Flake is offering another compromise.

In an essay for The Washington Post he wrote:

“I can’t see this Congress agreeing with this president on a package that includes a path to citizenship for DACA participants coupled with significant changes to our legal immigration structure. That comprehensive immigration reform has proved to be beyond our grasp.

That is why, when the Senate reconvenes next week, the first action I will take will be to introduce a bill extending DACA protections for three years and providing $7.6 billion to fully fund the first three years of the administration’s border-security proposal. I’ll be the first to admit this ‘three for three’ approach is far from a perfect solution, but it would provide a temporary fix by beginning the process of improving border security and ensuring DACA recipients will not face potential deportation.”

Trump demands for a DACA deal

In addition to demanding $25 billion for his wall, Trump is demanding changes in immigration policy, one of which would eliminate the process that likely has the First Lady’s parents living here.

Trump’s plan would only allow spouses and minor children to be sponsored for legal U.S. residency. He has claimed that the current system allows an immigrant to “bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives.” That’s not true. At all. It’s a much more complicated and lengthy process.

Dreamers versus in-laws 

Still, Trump has decided to demonize relatives sponsored by immigrants, when those relatives most often are just like Viktor and Amalija Knavs, the First Lady’s parents.

Trump's in-laws get to live here in safety and comfort after having spent their lives up to retirement in Slovenia.

Meantime, the dreamers grew up here, were educated here, work here and know no other country.

So maybe it wouldn’t be rude at all to ask the president who is more American:

Dreamers or Melania’s mom and dad?

MORE BY MONTINI:

DICK'S Sporting Goods for president

Teacher: No microwave but ... a gun?

Would Trump run toward shooter?