President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration Wednesday came as little surprise to one Montana immigration attorney.
Helena’s Shahid Haque-Hausrath says he saw President Trump’s immigration orders coming from a mile away:
"We knew this was going to be one of his opening salvoes. We expected that."
Haque-Hausrath, an immigration attorney with Helena’s Border Crossing law firm, is talking about the two executive immigration orders that Trump signed Wednesday.
One directs federal agencies to begin construction of a wall on the border with Mexico.
The other strips federal grant money from what are called "sanctuary" cities that don’t enforce federal immigration laws.
Haque-Hausrath points out there are no sanctuary cities in Montana. What’s more, he doesn’t think either of these orders will ultimately do anything to curb undocumented immigration:
"To really do that, he has to start looking at what the Senate proposed a few years ago with comprehensive immigration reform. Until you start actually addressing some of the problems with our immigration system that are driving undocumented immigration than undocumented immigration is going to occur."
According to Haque-Hausrath those problems include endless waits for work visas and those who ‘age out’ of immigration eligibility after spending years on waiting lists.
Not everybody was critical of Trump’s immigration orders. Montana’s Republican U.S. Senator, Steve Daines, praised them. In a news release he said, "I share President Trump’s commitment to securing the border, building our border's infrastructure, and protecting the homeland from threats."
