More misinformation from the media:
Anti-immigration advocates, including Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), have long peddled phony facts and misleading rhetoric to support their objection to both legal and illegal immigration. Some of their allegations are easily debunked. Immigrants are not “pouring” over the border. And President Obama dramatically increased the number of deportations: ‘The Obama Administration has deported more people than any other . . . administration in history’. . . . Contrary to President-elect Donald Trump’s rhetoric [the administration’s] focus has been on violent criminals. . . . Moreover, more people are leaving the United States to cross the border to Mexico than are coming the other way. . . . the notion that immigrants are “stealing” our jobs is belied by the near full employment figures (4.6 percent unemployed) – The Numbers Don’t Lie, But Anti-Immigration radicals do, Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post 12/27/16
Fact Check: While accusing immigration restrictionists of lying, Rubin repeats one of the biggest whoppers around these days, the tale that President Obama carried out “record deportations.” We have refuted this falsehood many times on this site, but it still keeps circulating in the media—which is why we call it the lie that will never die.
It’s false because it pads genuine deportations from the interior of the U.S. with illegal aliens caught at the border and sent back home. No previous administration tried to use this bogus means of accounting. It allowed Obama to appear to be tough on illegal immigration, even as he systematically (DHS) undermined immigration law enforcement. Eventually, the Department of Homeland Security admitted the truth about deportations, as did President Obama himself.
The administration claimed that its enforcement effort—such as it was—had the aim of deporting dangerous criminals. But that too is an exaggeration. On quite a number of occasions DHS has released such offenders after having them in custody.
As for Rubin’s claim that illegal border crossings are declining, she needs to look at some recent figures. Illegal immigration is rising after dropping off for several years, and it exceeds the number of illegal aliens going home. Perhaps the number of Mexicans leaving the U.S. is now greater than the number coming in, but Central Americans and others have replaced them as the cutting edge of illegal immigration.
By placing the word stealing in quote marks Rubin suggests that there is nothing wrong with foreigners taking American jobs. In fact that word is quite appropriate when they take jobs that properly should go to citizens. American citizens should come first in America—otherwise our citizenship and our country don’t mean much. The official unemployment figure of 4.6 percent grossly understates the reality of employment in the U.S. It does not include people who haven’t looked for work recently, or who are so discouraged that they have given up looking for work altogether. Also, it doesn’t included people who can’t find fill-time employment and have to settle for low-paying part-time jobs. Add these groups to the official figure and the total is more than twice as high.
Another issue is wage suppression, a situation clearly aggravated by immigration. Since 1970, when mass immigration began to take off, wages in constant dollars have scarcely risen.
Rubin presents herself as a “conservative” defender of free enterprise, but it appears more likely that she’s simply a journalist shill for cheap labor interests. If she and those interests really cared about free enterprise they would call for an end to the mass immigration that is pushing American politics to the left. To illustrate, Hispanics comprise the largest group of immigrants, and they are more strongly disposed against capitalism than any other group in American society, including people who identify as liberal Democrats. It is no coincidence that California turned hard left as it became the state with the largest number and percentage of immigrants.
Surely a columnist as knowledgeable Rubin must be aware of what immigration is doing to conservatism. The fact she won’t speak of this connection, as a supposed conservative, speaks volumes about her honesty.