Editorials

Today’s News & Commentary—October 9, 2017

Vivian Dong

Vivian Dong is a student at Harvard Law School.

On Sunday, the White House delivered to Congress a list of its conditions for cooperating on any deal to protect the 800,000 young undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, imperiled by the DACA repeal.  The most aggressive demand on the list is that for the construction of the promised wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Other demands include the hiring of 10,000 additional ICE agents and the denial of federal grants for sanctuary cities.  President Trump has characterized these conditions as conditions that “must be included” in any deal that would protect Dreamers.  In a joint statement, Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi and Majority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, denounced the demands. “The administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans.”  Unless some deal is struck by March 2018, however, thousands of Dreamers will begin to transition out of DACA protections and losing permission to work and protection from deportation.

The Weinstein Company has fired famous film producer Harvey Weinstein after the New York Times published an investigation detailing decades of sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein from female former employees and other female film industry workers.  One third of the company’s board resigned last week in response to the allegations.  The remainder engaged in a back-and-forth with Weinstein and his legal team over the weekend, attempting damage control.  Civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, who represented several women in their sexual harassment allegations against Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly, was originally hired as part of Weinstein’s legal team but resigned on Saturday amid criticism from individuals, including her mother, plaintiff-side attorney Gloria Allred.  Dozens of Weinstein’s current and former employees confirmed that Weinstein was a known sexual harasser within the company.  Weinstein himself gave a mixed response last week, acknowledging that “the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain” and announcing that he was going to seek help, but also threatening to sue the New York Times for defamation.  Weinstein is known as a major supporter of liberal causes. He has raised money for Hillary Clinton, and participated in the nationwide women’s march earlier this year.

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