Donald Trump Illegal Immigration Plans Resonate in Prince William County

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — Inasmuch that this area is acutely aware of heated rhetoric about undocumented immigrants, a brewing skirmish between President-elect Donald Trump and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham should be of particular interest.

Especially for Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and a Republican candidate in Virginia's next gubernatorial election.

Stewart has made national headlines for his hard-line approach to undocumented immigrants over the years, and after Trump's win over Hillary Clinton, he said, "If you're an illegal alien in Prince William County, I'd get out."

And this, as the Washington Post editorial board pointed out: "We're going to find out where each and every one of these guys is, and we're going to hunt them down and we're going to deport them."

But then here comes Graham, a fellow Republican, who told Politico he's been talking to Republicans and Democrats about a bill to protect undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

That's in direct opposition to one of Trump's campaign promises: to undo President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals directive aimed at giving legal protection to more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants.

After ending his presidential bid, Graham became one of Trump's biggest detractors in the Republican Party. Stewart, on the other hand, became one of Trump's biggest supporters.

In fact, he was the chief of Trump's Virginia campaign until being dumped after an unapproved protest "stunt" in D.C.

But Stewart's stance on immigration is much different from that of Graham, who said he couldn't go where Trump was "taking the [Republican] party" and called on party members to unendorse Trump.

The senator hasn't always been a fan of stand-alone bills that protect young undocumented immigrants.

SEE MORE: These Successful Immigrants Are Injecting Billions Into The US Economy

"You're wasting your time. We're not going to pass the DREAM Act or any other legalization program until we secure our borders," Graham said in a speech to the Senate in 2010.

But Graham has been a proponent of comprehensive immigration reform for years and was part of a bipartisan group known as the Gang of Eight working toward that end.

Graham said the bill wouldn't be up for a vote until next year when Trump will already be in office so the new president and the Senate might be headed for a fight.

Photo by Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons