Dreamers Watch as the Trump Assault Begins

The executive orders rain down like tweets now from the Oval Office. Some are nearly as gestural, as off the wall, as the ravings of @realDonaldTrump. Even congressional Republicans are unbriefed, caught by surprise by some of the edicts issued daily, or more than daily, by President Donald Trump. That was the case on Wednesday, when a flurry of executive orders announced the elements of an immigration crackdown: construction of the much promised southern border wall, a vast increase in enforcement agents and detention facilities, a federal assault on the hundreds of American cities that have declined to act as immigration police. This failure to consult, not only with political allies but with the relevant government agencies, or legal specialists, or experts of any sort, is what makes some of the orders seem slight and unrealistic. Obamacare shall be abolished, details to come. The executive orders are reportedly being written by a pair of White House aides, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, who also wrote Trump’s painful Inaugural Address. Miller became known during the campaign for whipping up crowds with the chant “Build the wall!” Bannon is the former editor of the far-right Web site Breitbart News.