The Quote Below: More Misinformation from the Media
“Those in the reality-based discussion about immigration have pointed out for years that the ‘crisis’ of illegal immigration isn’t a crisis at all and, in fact, that the outflow of people along the southern border has topped the inflow. . . . The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to new Pew Research. . . .
“This is precisely the kind of issue of which the Trump GOP cares not one whit about the facts. Tell them (truthfully) that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens, and they’ll scoff, dig up some worker who says ‘an illegal’ took his job. . . .
“It’s not possible to have a reasoned debate unless immigration opponents are ready to admit to facts. Like climate-change deniers, the anti-immigrant crowd resents elites who tell them they are wrong or uninformed. Well, sometimes reality isn’t what you’d like it to be. Nevertheless, the rest of us shouldn’t turn our economy inside out, engage in inhumane practices, waste billions on a wall, misuse our military and fan bigotry to preserve these people’s fantastical view of immigration, essentially a fictional creation that allows President Trump and his ilk to whip up their base.
“It’s time to engage in good faith with those who demonstrate good faith—and that means agreement on a set of indisputable facts.” – Jennifer Rubin: the Illegal Immigration ‘Crisis’ Is Trump-Made, Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post, 11/30/19 [Link]
Fact Check on Quote: Imagine the following situation. An engineer-inspector goes to a high dam and notices that it has a thin crack from top to bottom—and that a small flow of water is seeping through the crack. He organizes temporary repair work and rushes to report his finding to the authorities. Incredibly they are not interested. They called the engineer-inspector an alarmist and an extremist for worrying about a tiny little crack in the mighty dam. Meanwhile, back at the dam, the crack was slowly widening. . . .
Last year President Trump warned that the border was getting out of control. Illegal aliens were perfecting their scam of making bogus asylum claims after dragging children with them across the border. It was a relative trickle then, but it was obvious to anyone who could see that the trickle would turn into a torrent if left unchecked.
Illegal alien advocates and other immigration enthusiasts didn’t seem to notice or care. They lambasted Trump as an alarmist and an extremist. One was Jennifer Rubin who pontificated about “indisputable facts.” Today it is indisputable that our southern border is broken, and that a flood of humanity is surging through it.
A column in The New York Times, an arch critic of Trump, concedes that our immigration system could be at “a breaking point.” As similar view comes from acting the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He stated that the situation on the border was “an absolute crisis.” The rising numbers of border crossers apprehended in recent months point to a near-record total of between one and one-and-a-half million by the end of this year.
Will Rubin now admit that she was wrong about the border? Not likely. Nor will she probably concede realities about crimes committed by illegal aliens. She misrepresents this issue by stating that “immigrants” commit fewer crimes than natives without specifying whether they were legal or illegal.
It may well be that legal immigrants are more law-abiding. After all, they are screened for criminal histories. But Rubin is deceptive when she conflates their crime rate with that of illegal aliens. Some illegal alien advocates do claim that illegal aliens commit less crime than natives. There is much dispute over rates of arrest and incarceration of illegals, primarily because the federal government keeps no clear and comprehensive statistics of those rates.
Nevertheless, no one can deny that resident illegal aliens commit many crimes for which they are seldom apprehended or prosecuted. Simply being here illegally is one. And to remain here they typically practice additional lawbreaking such as document fraud, theft of citizens’ IDs, tax evasion and tax fraud, and theft of jobs which rightfully and legally belong to American citizens.
Contrary to Rubin’s charge, most immigration restrictionists are not “anti-immigrant,” and they are not bigots. They simply question our excessive level of legal immigration, while affirming our need to have a secure border. It would be nice to have a reasonable discussion about these issues, but to employ Rubin’s phrase, that would require mass immigration supporters “to admit to facts.”
She expresses resentment toward those who resent elites, but this latter resentment is often justified. In her case one need look no farther than her mockery of those who are concerned about job competition from illegal aliens. Would she have this same lofty indifference if illegal aliens were competing for her job as a columnist for a prestigious newspaper? This is probably one of those questions that answers itself.