DHS chief: I heard neither 'shithole' nor 'shithouse' Presented by DoorDash

with help from Ian Kullgren

NIELSEN: I HEARD NEITHER ‘SHITHOLE’ NOR 'SHITHOUSE': In an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen denied under oath that she heard President Donald Trump last Thursday refer to African nations as “shithole” or “shithouse” countries. But she acknowledged that Trump and members of Congress who attended the White House meeting on immigration used “tough language.” She said she was "struck more by the fact that the conversation, although passionate and appropriately so, had gotten to a place where many people in the room were using inappropriate language in the Oval Office, in front of the president."


Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) pressed Nielsen on the second half of Trump’s racist statement, in which he said he’d prefer to admit more immigrants from Norway. “Norway is a predominantly white country, isn’t it,” Leahy said, posing this less as a question than as a statement of indisputable fact on the order of “The pope is Catholic.” Nielsen replied: “I actually do not know that, sir.” Sensing, perhaps, that this left her vulnerable to extreme ridicule, Nielsen added, “but I imagine that is the case.” Too late! Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Cali.): “You run the Department of Homeland Security, and when you say you don’t know if Norway is predominantly white when asked by a member of the United States Senate, that causes me concern about your ability to understand the scope of your responsibilities and the impact of your words.”

It was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) who laid into the Trump administration the hardest, blasting the president for changing his position on immigration between Tuesday’s televised White House meeting with congressional leaders, at which all sides appeared to be moving toward a compromise on DACA and border security, and the follow-up meeting Thursday, at which Trump took a much harder line. “Tuesday we had a president that I was proud to golf with, call my friend, who understood immigration had to be bipartisan, you had to have border security as essential, you have border security with a wall, but he also understood the idea that we had to do it with compassion,” Graham said. “Now I don't know where that guy went. I want him back.” POLITICO’s Seung Min Kim has more.

The hearing wasn’t all about Trump and the prospect of a legislative compromise on immigration. Senators also inquired about Nielsen’s comment, in a CBS interview aired Tuesday morning, that deporting people brought into the country as children was “not going to be a priority” for ICE even without a comprehensive immigration deal. Nielsen clarified that the Trump administration was “not looking to extend the March 5 deadline” for DACA. She also said Congress should “absolutely” consider creating new guidelines for foreigners permitted to live in the U.S. under temporary protected status. It was Nielsen who ended TPS for nearly 200,000 Salvadorians, many of whom arrived after a devastating 2011 earthquake. “Unfortunately,” she said, “the law requires me if I cannot say that the conditions emanating from the earthquake still exist, regardless of other systemic conditions, I must terminate TPS.” More here.

GOOD MORNING! It's Wednesday, Jan. 17, and this is Morning Shift, POLITICO's daily tipsheet on employment and immigration policy. Send tips, exclusives and suggestions to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter at @tedhesson, @AndrewBHanna, @IanKullgren and @TimothyNoah1.

IMMIGRATION FIGHT THREATENS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: “Senators worked Tuesday to salvage a bipartisan plan to protect “Dreamers”— young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents — as the divide grew over an immigration deal seen as key to avoiding a government shutdown this weekend,” the WSJ’s Laura Meckler and Kristina Peterson report. “The White House complicated the negotiations by insisting that Congress allocate billions more for President Donald Trump’s promised border wall with Mexico.”

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said an injunction issued last week by a federal district court barring the cancellation of the DACA program might mean lawmakers have more time to reach an immigration deal,” the pair report. “He is seeking to separate the issue from the stopgap spending bill needed this week to prevent a shutdown. The Justice Department said Tuesday it was appealing that court decision, but meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has resumed accepting DACA renewal applications.” More here.

DOJ will seek direct Supreme Court review of the district court injunction to resurrect DACA, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein reports. “The administration is also appealing the ruling to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, but the unusual tactic of petitioning directly to the Supreme Court would make an end run around the lower court, which Trump and his aides have repeatedly criticized for what they view as liberal rulings.”

“It defies both law and common sense for DACA … to somehow be mandated nationwide by a single district court in San Francisco,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “We are now taking the rare step of requesting direct review on the merits of this injunction by the Supreme Court so that this issue may be resolved quickly and fairly for all the parties involved.” More here.

The use of federal injunctions to block executive orders nationwide “occurred only a few times until President Barack Obama’s second term,” Katie Benner reports in the New York Times, paraphrasing UCLA law professor Samuel Bray. That changed when “Republican state attorneys general turned to that strategy about half a dozen times to stop some of [Obama’s] major initiatives.” Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions never said it defied law and common sense for the federal courts to block nationwide Obama’s pro-immigration executive order expanding DACA. But now that his ox being gored, he appears to see matters differently. Bray published an article last month in Harvard Law Review that said such sweeping national injunctions overreached when they blocked Obama’s agenda and overreach now that they’re blocking Trump’s. You can read it here. Read Benner’s New York Times story here.

DUCKWORTH DOUBTS EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE ON IG REPORT: Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) sent a pair of letters Tuesday demanding answers about DHS’s attempt to claim executive privilege for an inspector general’s report about Trump’s first travel ban. The first letter, addressed to the Senate Homeland Security committee chair and ranking member, requests an oversight hearing on what she calls an “attempt to redact information” in the report. Duckworth warns that allowing DHS to block its release would “significantly weaken congressional oversight” and “undermine transparency.” The second letter, sent to the Council of Inspectors General, asks how rare it is for agencies to invoke executive privilege on any IG report.

DOJ APPEALS RULING AGAINST SANCTUARY CITY POLICY: The Trump administration appealed to the Third Circuit Court a federal judge’s ruling halting its efforts to cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities. A quick recap: the DOJ last year tried to attach new conditions to public safety grants that would give federal immigration authorities enhanced access to the city’s jails. Philadelphia city officials sued DOJ’s Sessions, and in November U.S. District judge Michael Baylson ruled that the administration could not withhold the grants.

NLRB OPPOSES UNION PETITION ON BROWNING-FERRIS: The NLRB’s Office of General Counsel asked the D.C. Circuit Court to deny a Teamsters motion on Browning-Ferris , the joint-employer decision that the Republican-majority NLRB overturned in December. Teamsters Local 350 asked the court to reconsider a December decision to remand Browning-Ferris to the board.

The NLRB lost its Republican majority shortly after the board overturned Browning-Ferris with the expiration of Philip Miscimarra’s term. Now House Republicans want that majority restored quickly with Senate confirmation for the nominee to replace Miscimarra, John Ring. "The National Labor Relations Board needs strong, experienced, and objective leaders who will make the protection of workers and job creators, not special interests, the board’s top priority," Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) wrote in a statement today. "We applaud President Trump for his nomination of John Ring to serve as a member of the NLRB." More here.

DNC SMACKS TRUMP: DNC Chairman Tom Perez released a memo Tuesday criticizing Trump’s record on jobs. Perez, who served as labor secretary under Obama, cited layoffs at the Carrier plant in Indiana; the rollback of multiple DOL actions under Obama, including rules concerning OSHA recordkeeping and tip pooling and DOL’s joint employer guidance; and proposed cuts to job training programs. The memo suggests Democrats will use these rollbacks to attack Republicans in the midterm elections. More here.

A new report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute says that women would be harmed disproportionately by the tip-pooling rollback. “We estimate that if the rule is finalized, every year workers will lose $5.8 billion in tips, as tips are shifted from workers to employers,” the report reads. “Of the $5.8 billion, nearly 80 percent—$4.6 billion—would be taken from women who are working in tipped jobs.” More here.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT UPDATE:

A former WTOP reporter accused her supervisor, Rob Woodfork, of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed with D.C.’s Superior Court in December. The plaintiff, Joy Pivec, was an on-air traffic reporter with WTOP from January until April of last year. Pivec says she resigned after being “repeatedly subjected to harassment” over a period of two months. “The incidents were reported to WTOP’s Human Resources Department,” the suit reads. “However, no action was taken to discipline the co-worker while Pivec was working at WTOP. The co-worker continued to be employed by WTOP.”

Meanwhile, a Babe.net story accusing Aziz Ansari of sexual misconduct prompted a backlash. Bari Weiss of the New York Times called it the “worst thing to happen to the #MeToo movement since it began in October,” while the Atlantic’s Caitlin Flanagan wrote that she “thought it would take a little longer for the hit squad of privileged young white women to open fire on brown-skinned men.” The Huffington Post’s Emma Gray defended Babe’s decision to tackle “complicated conversations about sex that is violating but not criminal,” but Julianne Escobedo Shepard wrote on the feminist site Jezebel that the story was “amateurish” and did a “disservice to the topic.” Joshi Herrmann, editor-in-chief of Babe’s parent company Tab media, told CNNMoney that he had no regrets about the story. “We would publish this again tomorrow,” he said.

COFFEE BREAK:

— “Trump administration highlights 'foreign-born' terror-related criminals in immigration push,” from USA TODAY.

— “The Case for Letting Uber Drivers Organize,” from Bloomberg.

— “Why the Trump Administration’s DACA Policy Is Indefensible,” from New York Magazine.

— “DACA recipients urged to quickly renew temporary deportation protections,” from the Chicago Tribune.

— “Travis Kalanick discussed compensating the driver he berated in that viral video,” from Recode.

— “You don't have to grow government to expand paid family leave,” from the Washington Examiner.

THAT’S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT.

Follow us on Twitter Rebecca Rainey @rebeccaarainey