President Trump in his bid for re-election portrayed himself as the protector of law and order; advocator for border security and more extensive crackdowns on immigration; a sworn MS-13 gang and ISIS enemy; and an unfaltering oppose of the 1994 crime bill (James, 2019) . Trump has become vocal against the 1994 law that was initially referred to as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which was signed to law by the former President Bill Clinton. At the time of signing the bill, the rates of violent crimes were considerably higher than they are currently (James, 2019) . The Act fostered federal states to adopt stringent measures on crime including the unpopular "three strikes” regulation. The bill mainly impacted Hispanics and African American negatively.
The renewed opposition of the '94 crime bill by Trump is mainly due to Joe Biden, who is the preferred Democratic 2020 presidential candidate. In a similar strategy that worked well against Hillary Clinton, Trump is attacking Bill Clinton’s centric policies that both the libertarian right and progressive left opposed (James, 2019) . Biden is a former Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and bears more responsibility for the crime bill contents and therefore would compromise Biden’s black voter turnout. Trump was integral in passing the bipartisan bill referred to as the First Step Act, which is to reform the criminal justice bill. The First Step Act has been described by activists as groundbreaking in the fight to ameliorate the challenges of mass incarceration contributed by the '94 crime bill (Cole et al. 2018) . In return, Trump provided cover to Republicans who wished to vote for the bill without being branded “soft on crime” before signing it into law.
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Trump's position on crime showcases how the bipartisan consensus on the issue of crime has changed since the '90s. Bill Clinton signed the crime bill because he felt to remain with the Republican, who had taken congress for the first in forty years. Trump has the belief that reforms in criminal justice are of political advantage to him, especially in his re-election bid. Though Trump is taking credit for the reforms in the criminal justice system, his track record of advocating for stringent responses to criminal actions immensely precede Trump’s political career, most noticeably Trump's connection with the Central Park Five (Cole et al. 2018) .
Trump's major steps to drive down crime have been announcing priorities by executive orders (EO) and public statements mainly aimed at undoing former President Barack Obama's policies. On the 9 th of February 2017, Trump signed into law three orders that would welcome a “new era of justice:” Executive Order 13773 that was a committee to stop transitional criminal organizations (Cole et al. 2018) . EO 13773 gives the administrative measure to reducing organized crimes such as cartels and gangs by improving coordination with foreign states and share data between federal agencies. The second-order EO 13774 aims at safeguarding law enforcement officers ( Kerwin, 2018) . The EO advocates for increased penalties on criminal actions directed towards police officers and orders for alterations in funding federal grant to programs of law enforcement if the laws do not safeguard officers. The third order EO 13776 , which instructed the Attorney General to institute a “Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety” ( Kerwin, 2018) . Trump also advocated for the stop & frisk policy, which was instead deemed unconstitutional. In a separate incidence, Trump also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to start weekly printing reports of committed crimes by undocumented immigrants and to create an office to work with casualties of such criminal actions exclusively.
In conclusion, policy on criminal justice is regularly portrayed as one of the few areas where crucial legislation reforms could be done. Security is a significant concern, and all effort should be aimed at reducing crime rates. Trump’s stance on crime control can be framed as politically driven, which implies that the main hurdle to federal legislation appears to be election-year politics.
References
Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2018). The American system of criminal justice . Cengage Learning
James, W. (2019, the 6th of June). Trump's criminal justice balancing act. Retrieved from https://theweek.com/articles/845394/trumps-criminal-justice-balancing-act
Kerwin, D. (2018). From IIRIRA to Trump: Connecting the Dots to the Current US Immigration Policy Crisis. Journal on Migration and Human Security , 6 (3), 192-204.
