Former top White House official under Reagan has harsh words for Trump, administration

DENVER – Linda Chavez, who was the highest-ranking woman in the Reagan White House as Director of Public Liaison, has harsh words for the Trump administration and the executive order on immigration still in limbo in federal court.

In a Friday interview with Denver7 for Politics Unplugged, Chavez slammed the haste in which the administration put together the order that has left visa holders from certain countries in limbo despite them being legally in the country.

“President Trump is shooting from the hip,” Chavez said in an interview with Anne Trujillo for Politics Unplugged. “When he drafted the order, it didn’t go through the normal process.”

Chavez lives in Boulder and is a Fellow in Immigration Policy and the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University.

“What he’s done is basically changed the rules in the middle of the game. That’s not the American way,” Chavez said Friday. “We don’t pass a law with certain conditions and then decide, ‘Oh, we’re going to rewrite that, and if you happen to be out of the country, even if you have a valid visa and are a permanent resident, we’re not going to let you back in.”

She also authored a story published in Townhall Friday in which she said she had never “felt as alienated from politics” as she does now, going into detail on her issues with the manner in which the Trump administration has handled its first few weeks in the white house.

“We live in a constitutional system,” she said. “You’re not free to throw out the rules and you’re certainly not free to ignore due process.”

Chavez talked at length Friday about the immigration order and several other aspects of the new administration and its differences from when she worked in the White House. The full interview between Chavez and Trujillo will air at 4 p.m. on Denver7’s Politics Unplugged.