Reichert: White House handling of travel order ‘unacceptable and disgusting’

Republicans in Congress continue to be bombarded with complaints and protests about President Trump’s executive order halting travel and immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

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And a few are actually breaking from the ranks and criticizing the White House’s handling of the weekend order that saw dozens of people improperly detained and airports snarled.

In this polarized, hyper-partisan climate, for a Republican to say anything critical of the White House or Trump right now is a pretty bold move.

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Issaquah) had a harsh assessment of what went down Friday and over the weekend.

“People got caught up in this who should not have been have been caught up. Their freedoms were taken away, they were handcuffed and held in holding cells — even children — which is absolutely unacceptable and disgusting,” Reichert said.

Reichert says it could have all been avoided if the administration had simply reached out to Congress beforehand, notified lawmakers of its plans to temporarily halt travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

“We’ve already been working on legislation in a bi-partisan way the past few years,” he said.

In fact, Reichert announced yesterday he and newly elected Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) have co-sponsored a new bill which allows children of immigrants who meet the standards of what’s known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to remain in the United States.

“She and I are working together on that so they don’t have to fear deportation. There have been other efforts congressionally and legislatively to protect the rights of those people coming and going.”

But he says the safety of the nation’s borders and Americans at home needs to be protected as well.

Reichert says there was plenty of anger among House Republicans at a closed-door meeting Monday as members returned from the weekend. Many were furious the White House has shut both them and its own agencies out of key decision making, such as signing the travel ban without telling anyone including those charged with enforcing it including airport authorities.

“There was agreement in the room that this was very poorly rolled out, not very well thought out. And I’m using some mild language here but I’m in total disagreement as to how this thing was presented to the American people.

And Reichert has felt the fallout. He says his offices in D.C and Issaquah have been bombarded with hundreds of calls and protesters showing up, disrupting his staff’s work.

He says he hears the outrage and shares it, but it’s making it tough to serve his constituents such as veterans and seniors seeking help with their individual problems.

“I understand their frustration and I understand their fear because I think we’re all feeling a bit uneasy as this is sort of an uncertain, unpredictable time we’re living in. But what’s happening is I’m not able to serve my constituents who may be calling in that really need my help,” Reichert said.

It didn’t help that some progressive groups and slanted media reports only shared part of a statement he put out over the weekend, wrongly painting him as an outright supporter of the executive order and launching an organized protest campaign against him.

And it’s not just that he’s getting an earful about. As chairman of a key trade subcommittee, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement has brought a flood of worried, high ranking visitors to his office.

Reichert says he shares their concerns, especially given how critical Pacific trade is for everything from apples to agriculture.

He recently met with Vice President Mike Pence to express his feelings. But he says even though Trump has pulled out of TPP, he’s more comfortable after hearing Trump plans to still negotiate individual trade deals with each of the countries involved.

“He (Trump) wants fair trade, as he’s calling it. And we want fair trade. We want to make sure – secondly – that jobs are created through fair trade. And three, we want to make sure that we keep jobs here in America. And then four, we want to make sure that we can sell American products. And so on those four points, the administration and I agree,” Reichert said.

But he admits if the White House doesn’t get better quickly at handling the implementation of policy and get others on board, it’ll be a tough go for everyone.

“I’ve been here for Bush, Obama, and now Trump. They all make mistakes when they first come in and hopefully they learn from their mistakes. This definitely was a big one,” he said.

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