More Misinformation from the Media:
The idea of using harsh policies as a deterrent to illegal immigration has been part of the Republican approach for some time. You may remember that in 2012, Mitt Romney proposed “self-deportation” as a solution to the problem, the idea being that if you make life miserable and terrifying enough for undocumented immigrants, they’d leave. Believe it or not, at the time he was intensely criticized for the remark. . . . Trump began his campaign calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists
These ideas have turned into policy. The Trump Administration has . . . done the following: . . . . Rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA] program, Barred entry from certain Muslim-majority countries. Ended temporary protected status. . . . – The Trump Administration’s Immigration Policies Are Impossibly Cruel, But That’s the Point, The Washington Post, Paul Waldman, 5/28/18 [Link]
Fact Check: The Post writer seems to think that any enforcement of immigration laws is cruelty. Perhaps he believes that the alternative of anarchy would be kindness. The idea behind “self-deportation” is that illegal aliens will go home, without mass roundups, if we simply enforce the laws against their presence in the United States. One example would be preventing their employment by requiring businesses to use the E-Verify System to check the legal status of the people it hires.
To be sure, it may inconvenience illegal aliens if they have more trouble taking American jobs and accessing social services. But that inconvenience hardly qualifies as misery and terror. Since when is it the goal of law enforcement to make lawbreakers comfortable?
The claim that President Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists is a Big Lie that the corporate media will keep on repeating no matter how many times they are corrected. What he said was that some illegal aliens from Mexico were rapists and other types of criminals. This is a true statement, one necessary to balance the media’s common claim that all illegal aliens are wonderful warm-hearted people who enrich us in every possible way.
The Trump Administration has tried to get rid of the DACA program, and that is much to its credit. DACA was a blatantly unconstitutional act by former president Obama. Under the Constitution, Congress—not the president—is delegated authority to make laws. Former President Obama ignored this division of powers and simply proclaimed amnesty for illegal aliens in the DACA category.
Labeling Trump’s action against DACA “cruel” is a patent absurdity. Getting rid of Obama’s illegal edict is an attempt to affirm our country’s rule of law. The president has rightly affirmed that Congress must pass the DACA program for it to be legal.
Trump’s travel ban is not a ban on Muslim immigration, as the Post writer suggests. The purpose is to identify countries with a significant presence of terrorists and to take caution before letting people from those countries come here. Not all the countries on the list are majority Muslim, and the majority of Muslim countries are not listed. The aim of the ban is national security, to prevent crime and cruelty against American citizens.
Trump’s end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for certain foreign residents was a reasonable and long overdue step. Under TPS they were allowed to stay in the U.S. after natural disasters and other upheavals in their countries. Under the law, however, they were supposed to return home after conditions there improved. The key word is “temporary.” Nevertheless, many remained in the U.S. long after conditions in their countries had returned to normal. Some had been here for almost twenty years.
The Post writer and other immigration enthusiasts in the media attack the most basic immigration law enforcement because, it seems, they don’t really believe in the right of American citizens to determine their country’s future. They don’t seem to believe in countries at all. Can they be called patriotic Americans in any sense of the word? It’s hard to see how.