The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“The airing of a naturalization ceremony at Tuesday’s convention and its intended message to the American people that their president welcomes immigrants is similarly undercut by Trump’s zeal for making it harder for people to enter the country ― legally or not. . . . President Donald Trump’s surprise pardon of a black man and his staging of a naturalization ceremony as the Republican National Convention kicked off its second night on Tuesday was aimed at bolstering his image as someone who isn’t hostile to people of color. . . .
“Legality aside, Trump’s record on race relations is fraught with racist appeals to his mostly white base, rhetoric that has gotten sharper as the November election approaches. . . .
“The airing of a naturalization ceremony at Tuesday’s convention and its intended message to the American people that their president welcomes immigrants is similarly undercut by Trump’s zeal for making it harder for people to enter the country ― legally or not. . . .
“Trump’s administration has actually raised the barriers to legal immigration ― nearly doubling the fees for a number of immigration and work authorization applications, including the fee to apply for naturalization.
“Trump has shut down nearly all refugee resettlement, redirected funds for military projects to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, barred travel to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries, tried to repeal protections for immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, attempted to add a citizenship question to the census, and, perhaps most consequentially, adopted a “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting migrants. . . .” – Trump Courts Minorities with Convention stunts Despite Long History of Stoking Racism, Huffington Post, Igor Bobic, 8/28/20 [Link]
Fact Check of Quote Above: When immigration advocates lack effective arguments they invariably resort to the kind of race-baiting displayed in this article. It suggests that limiting immigration is a “racist” Trumpian conspiracy aimed at harming “people of color.”
If we can remove the blinders of race-baiting aside, it is possible to view immigration reduction as a policy that will help American citizens of all racial and ethnic backgrounds—particularly those of lower socio-economic backgrounds. Reducing the admission of foreign workers helps to protect their access to employment and prevent suppression of their wages.
Some immigration advocates have racial and ethnic agendas, and they use accusations of “racism” to hide them. Cases in point are Latino supremacists who promote legal and illegal immigration of their ethnicity to secure political clout for themselves. Because their aim is self-empowerment, they really don’t care that immigration harms the economic prospects of people they claim to support. In fact, it works to the advocates’ benefit to keep those people poor and unassimilated because it makes them easier to manipulate.
One flagrant Latino supremacist group UnidosUS (Us United), which denounces any effective measures to secure the border and stop illegal immigration. It changed its name from the National Council of La Raza (The Race) because that name gave away its true purpose.
The writer of the above article seems to think it was hypocritical of President Trump to hold a naturalization ceremony at the Republican convention when his administration had cracked down on illegal immigration and taken steps to reduce legal entry.
Stopping illegal immigration is no offense whatsoever to legal immigrants. They are two entirely different categories of people—despite the efforts of immigration advocates quite often to conflate them. The former disrespect our laws; the latter abide by them. Also, it is no offense or expression of hostility toward legal immigrants to advocate less legal immigration as a means to serve the national interest. To say otherwise is like saying that parents who limit the size of their families, in order to provide well for them, have hostility toward children.
With legal immigration at the highest sustained level in our history, it is reasonable to think about reducing it. Race-baiting is a tactic to shift attention from that need.