Trump eyes September shutdown

With help from Josh Gerstein

TRUMP EYES SEPTEMBER SHUTDOWN: President Donald Trump repeated his threat this weekend to shut the federal government down if he can’t secure funding for a border wall, this time in connection with a September spending bill. "We need the wall," Trump told a crowd in Michigan on Saturday. “We come up again on September 28th, and if we don't get border security, we'll have no choice. We'll close down the country because we need border security."


When Congress passed a spending bill in late March, Trump tweeted a last-minute veto threat over its lack of full funding for the border wall and “the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats” (translation: the Democrats wouldn’t sign on to Trump’s package of DACA protections combined with reductions in legal immigration). Later that day, Trump capitulated and signed the $1.3 trillion spending package into law. Trump has said little about saving DACA since his last veto threat, but he’s railed against illegal immigration — and blasted Democrats for not supporting the wall.

Trump has focused lately on a caravan of Central American migrants traveling northward through Mexico. Once 1200 strong, the caravan had dwindled to about 150 when it arrived at the U.S. border Sunday night, Kirk Semple reported in the New York Times. The group, made up of “mainly women and children fleeing poverty and violence in Central America,” was told by U.S. immigration authorities that their asylum claims couldn’t be processed until this morning — and that the migrants would therefore have to spend the night on the Mexican side of the border.

Another line from Trump’s Saturday speech received less applause, Jonathan Allen reports for NBC News. To farmers — who could experience major disruptions if Trump embarks on a trade war — Trump promised robust access to foreign guest workers as a sort of tradeoff. “For the farmers, OK, it's going to get good,” he said. “We're going to let your guest workers come in.” The H-2A visa program for temporary agricultural workers is currently uncapped, but some growers argue its requirements are nonetheless too cumbersome. Read more from CNN here, from the New York Times here and from NBC News here.

Related read: “Trump’s role in midterm elections roils Republicans,” from the New York Times. Find it here.

GOOD MORNING! It's Monday, April 30, 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.

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TODAY:

Pence to California border: Vice President Mike Pence today visits a stretch of the southwest border near Calexico, Calif. He’ll speak to U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees at 2:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. PT). Congress funded a combined 13 miles of replacement border barriers in the El Centro sector in spending packages for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Read more from the Los Angeles Times here. Read a rundown of border barrier construction in this letter sent last week from CBP to Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) here.

Weingarten in Arizona: AFT President Randi Weingarten heads to Phoenix today where she’ll speak at a rally in support of Arizona teachers, who enter the third day of a statewide walkout today. Weingarten will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. (11 a.m. MT) and join a teacher rally an hour later. Many Arizona teachers have rejected a proposal from Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to raise pay 20 percent by 2020 without raising taxes, the New York Times reported earlier this month. The press conference takes place at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, 1700 W. Washington St. Check for updates here.

Nadler joins striking Columbia grads: Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) will join Columbia University graduate student workers today in the final day of a week-long strike over the university’s refusal to bargain with the workers. The grad worker union said more than 1,000 grad workers joined the picket line over the course of a week.

Uber guild targets NYC bill: The Independent Drivers Guild, a quasi-union for ride hail drivers, will protest in New York City today a proposal bill that would create a $2,000 fee for every vehicle used for ride hail programs. The bill, introduced by Councilman Ruben Diaz, Sr., would create new city regulations for ride hail services, which currently fall under livery cab rules, according to the New York Daily News’ Erin Durkin. “To get a license, companies like Uber and Lyft would have to demonstrate that there’s a need for their service in neighborhoods where they plan to operate,” Durkin wrote last week, “and city regulators would be instructed to assume they’re not needed unless the company can prove otherwise.” Drivers will demonstrate at 8 a.m. outside New York’s City Hall and hold a press conference at 9 a.m. More on the bill from the Daily News here.

THIS WEEK:

Honduras TPS deadline: The Trump administration is expected to decide by Friday whether to renew temporary protected status for roughly 86,000 Hondurans covered under the program. Former Deputy Secretary Elaine Duke, during her time as acting secretary, extended the status for six months back in November, but not without a bit of drama.

The Washington Post reported at the time that White House chief of staff John Kelly and homeland security adviser Tom Bossert pressed Duke to terminate Honduran enrollment in the program. Duke denied she faced pressure and told Reuters media accounts were “seriously flawed.” She also said at the time that she didn’t plan to leave the administration (another claim in the Post report). Duke retired earlier this month.

MSHA stakeholder meetings: MSHA kicks off a series of public meetings centered on a final rule published earlier this month that requires mine inspectors to conduct a safety review at the start of each shift. The Trump administration reworked the rule, originally proposed in January 2017, to be more business-friendly, POLITICO’s Ian Kullgren reported in early April. “The revised rule says that inspections may be conducted as miners begin entering the mine, whereas the first rule said the inspection must be complete before miners start working,” he wrote. MSHA will hold stakeholder meetings in Bloomington, Ill., on Tuesday and Seattle on Thursday. Find more info here.

PALMS WORKERS BET ON UNION: Workers at the Palms, a Las Vegas casino owned by Station Casinos, voted to unionize over the weekend through a secret ballot overseen by the NLRB, according to a related announcement Saturday. A total of 614 workers voted in a two-day election that wrapped Saturday, with 84 percent in favor of joining a union. The workers will be represented by a pair of Unite Here affiliates, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165. More from the Associated Press here.

HARASSMENT UPDATE:

Meehan resigns from Congress: Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) resigned from Congress Friday, but pledged to pay back $39,000 of taxpayer money used to settle a sexual harassment claim, POLITICO’s Nolan McCaskill and Steven Shepard report. Meehan announced in January that he would not seek reelection, after details emerged about the settlement. The lawmaker denied the allegations (first reported by the New York Times), but acknowledged to the Philadelphia Inquirer that he held a deep affection for a younger aide. The 62-year-old Meehan, who is married, said he told the aide he viewed her as a “soul mate,” according to the Inquirer. More from POLITICO here.

Wynn files defamation suit: Former Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn filed a defamation lawsuit last week against against a former employee, Rebecca Davis O’Brien reports in the Wall Street Journal. Wynn, who resigned as CEO of Wynn Resorts in February amid allegations of sexual misconduct that spanned decades, alleges in the suit that Jorgen Nielsen, a former company salon director, made “false and defamatory” statements in news interviews. “[Nielsen] was quoted by name in two articles about Mr. Wynn and the casino company in The Wall Street Journal earlier this year,” the Journal reports. More here.

Curry recalls sounding the alarm: Former “Today” show host Ann Curry approached NBC management over allegations against her colleague Matt Lauer in 2012, the Washington Post’s Sarah Ellison reported last week. “I told management they had a problem and they needed to keep an eye on him and how he deals with women,” she told the Post. When accusations of sexual misconduct against Lauer surfaced in November, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack said in a statement it was the “first complaint about his behavior” in more than 20 years with the company. Read more from the Post here.

Brokaw rejects allegations: NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw “issued a pointed rebuke on Friday to a former colleague who has accused him of groping and harassing her during the 1990s,” Michael Grynbaum writes in the New York Times. Linda Vester, a former NBC News and Fox News correspondent, “described [Brokaw] tickling her in a conference room, asking her to drinks and, on two occasions in New York and London, inviting himself to her hotel room,” Grynbaum reports. “There, she said, he grabbed her and tried to force her to kiss him.” Brokaw denied the accusations quite vehemently in an email to media outlets. More here.

‘Enforcement maze’ for NY harassment claims: New York State passed new sexual harassment laws in March that ban most non-disclosure agreements and mandatory arbitration clauses in sexual harassment cases, among other changes. But enforcement will be a challenge, Vivian Wang reports in the New York Times. “There is no single investigative body or agency charged with hearing complaints of sexual harassment or abuse by state officials. Nor is there a uniform statewide definition of sexual harassment,” she writes. “What exists is a tangle of commissions, offices and agencies, many with overlapping jurisdictions but different procedures and enforcement powers — and no clear framework for reconciling them.” More here.

JUDGE BACKS PHILLY IN SANCTUARY CASE: A federal judge sided with the city of Philadelphia Friday in a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s attempt to condition federal law enforcement grants on cooperation with immigration enforcement. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Baylson granted summary judgment to the city on three counts of its amended complaint against the Justice Department. The order backs up a preliminary injunction Baylson issued in November and is the latest legal setback for the administration in its war on so-called “sanctuary” cities. The trial in the case begins today; the judge’s order takes several big issues off the table, but others remain unresolved. Read the order here.

In a separate sanctuary fight, the DOJ on Friday petitioned the 7th Circuit to rehear en banc a case brought by the city of Chicago over withholding of law enforcement grants. The appeals court earlier this month upheld a nationwide injunction against the administration’s attempt to make the funding contingent on immigration cooperation. In the filing Friday, the Justice Department requested the injunction against the policy be narrowed to Chicago pending the outcome of the en banc petition and a possible appeal to the Supreme Court. Read the petition here.

PEEPS MAKER CAN’T BLOCK ACCESS TO PENSIONS: “A federal appeals court on Thursday struck a blow to Just Born’s efforts to end pension contributions for newly hired workers, saying the Bethlehem company known for its Peeps, Mike and Ike, and other candy could not block workers from the plan without paying a penalty,” Anthony Salamone writes for the Allentown Morning Call. “The ruling is a major victory for several hundred Just Born production employees, members of Bakery Workers Local 6, who went on a sometimes-nasty strike for about a month in September 2016, principally over the pension issue.” Read more from the Morning Call here and the opinion here.

SESSIONS WEIGHS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STANDARD: “Jeff Sessions recently used his special authority as attorney general to review an asylum case that could have sweeping implications for how the U.S. treats immigrants fleeing domestic violence,” CNN’s Tal Kopan reports. “Newly released records now show that the case he handpicked, which involves a Central American woman fleeing domestic abuse from her ex-husband, comes from a judge who has been repeatedly rebuked by appellate judges for his multiple rejections of asylum claims from victims of domestic abuse.”

“V. Stuart Couch, an immigration judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, has sought to justify denying such women the right to stay in the U.S. in multiple cases, even with the appellate body repeatedly ruling that his findings were ‘clearly erroneous,’ according to records released after a Freedom of Information Act request,” CNN reports. More here.

REPORT: ICE SWEEPING UP CITIZENS: “[ICE] agents repeatedly target U.S. citizens for deportation by mistake, making wrongful arrests based on incomplete government records, bad data and lax investigations, according to a Times review of federal lawsuits, internal ICE documents and interviews,” report Paige St. John and Joel Rubin in the Los Angeles Times. “Since 2012, ICE has released from its custody more than 1,480 people after investigating their citizenship claims, according to agency figures.” More here.

COFFEE BREAK:

—“They revealed harassment claims against a professor, and were disciplined,” from the New York Times

—“How does a tight labor market drive up prices you pay? Just visit your local hair salon,” from the Wall Street Journal

—“ICE evades sanctuary rules by using NYPD fingerprints to find immigrants and send them call-in letters,” from the Intercept

—“High hopes, hazy role for Labor Department’s second-in-command,” from Bloomberg Law

—“NYC lounge illegaally fired worker for voicing gripes: NLRB,” from Law360

—“U.S. immigration lawyers are shifting focus to prosecute people who’ve lived in the US longest,” from Quartz

CORRECTION: The April 27 edition of Morning Shift misstated Bloomberg reporter Hassan Kanu's last name.

THAT’S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT.

Follow us on Twitter Rebecca Rainey @rebeccaarainey