I was watching an MSNBC discussion show Friday morning, with all four panelists agreeing, vociferously, that Donald J. Trump was “anti immigrant” and his deportation plan would inevitably lead to “separation of families.”
This can get deep fast because the courts have ruled that while adult illegals can be held almost indefinitely, children can be held in a facility no more than 20 days.
Under Trump’s first term, following the law, Trump removed the children from the adults, and promptly lost track of many of them. This horrified a large segment of the American public, fewer of whom are aware that the Joe Biden administration lost track of 300,000 children, according to Republicans. An AP fact check doused the 300,000 figure, but acknowledged there were missing children.
Anyway, as to “anti-immigrant,” no. Keep in mind I have no love for Trump and his careless, often vile language, because it creates a poor image of people, like me, who see illegals as a problem, but not because most of them are “Bad hombres,” as Trump has said.
Like many in his adversarial mainstream media, Trump does not distinguish between immigrants here lawfully, and those who are not. Good and bad are all dumped into a pot labelled “migrant.” It is a serious mistake.
If you believe Trump hates “immigrants,” explain why he has given extraordinary powers to Elon Musk, perhaps America’s best-known immigrant, and certainly the wealthiest.
Trump is not “anti-immigrant.” He is anti illegal immigrant and he hurts himself by being so obtuse.
As to the separation of families, former ICE director (and now Border Czar} Tom Homan, whose face looks like a clenched fist, was mercilessly direct: Every single day American families are “separated” when Daddy gets sentenced to jail after being convicted of a crime. There is no earthly reason illegals should not be subject to the same.
In reality, Homan says, if the parents are illegal and their born-in-America children are legal, the parents choose whether to take the children with them back to the parents’ home country, or to leave them here to be raised by legal family members.
The family will be “separated” only if the parents wish it, as they are deported.
One other thought. I don’t like the word “deport.” So harsh.
I prefer “repatriated.”
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Trump has said many times that he loves immigrants. But he wants them to come in the right way. And he’s doing the right thing by deporting them. Instead of being outraged by his words you should be outraged by what Biden and the democrats have done to this country.The illegal imigration has cost us a fortune. And it would have been money better spent on American citizens who are struggling.. instead of hating Trump why not praise him for doing the right thing.
The word “deport” is no longer the legal term. It’s “removed.” I agree that Trump is not anti immigrant but many in MAGA are, as evidenced by the new attacks on Musk and Vivek for their plans to open up skilled worker immigration. So yo ignore the xenophobia in Trump’s base is foolish (not you, Stu, but hard core MAGA which truly does hate any form of immigration.) Obama and Biden separated families but it was not a core principle of their immigration policy. Stephen Milker, Trump’s 2016-2020 immigration adviser was fueled by cruelty and that was the difference between family separation as a collateral result and family separation as punishment. I’ve got the popcorn out to see if Musk can vanquish Dark MAGA. I think he can
I agree some MAGA is anti immigrant, but he doesn’t follow them, they follow him. Example: Steve Scalise was shot by a Bernie bro. I don’t hold Bernie responsible.
Your first mistake was even listening to what is said on MSNBC. As with Fox News, I view them as equally and outrageously partisan in their coverage, providing raw meat to their side and fodder for the other side. I personally ignore them both completely, but I suppose in your line of work, you can't. Beyond that, I agree with the basic premise of what Christine had said. I don't believe most of what Trump says, because he, often as not, blusters about something without actually following through and when he does, it's often as not haphazard. The MAGA base is vigorously anti immigrant, whether illegal or legal. But the ultimate arbiter of this whole, sorry mess, is created by the inaction of Congress. They had a good (not great) bill in place earlier this year, until Trump convinced Republicans to tank it so he could use it to fuel his campaign. That just shows what a weak, sorry bunch Congress truly has become. Until they come up with sensible, sound solutions, this a problem you'll keep on writing about ad nauseam.
Isn't this the first question to ask: What size should the population of the US be, before attempting to set the goals for the number of legal immigrants to allow?
Is there a desired number of citizens we think is enough?
Our population has more than doubled since some of us were born; 140 million then and 330 million now. All the woodlands, farms and open spaces around where I grew up are covered with shops, parking lots, roads, offices and houses; many houses. Much of it is exceedingly ugly. Major roadways widened 30 years ago are being widened again. Far too many people are listless, homeless, and unemployable and we have seemingly unsolvable educational, social and housing problems, now. Plus, a reasonable point of view is, we are overtaxed now and those in government are spending our taxes criminally unwisely, inefficiently. and ineffectively.
Each one of us also uses up a lot of fossil fuel and other energy in our lives, produces a lot of trash weekly and buys and uses far too much stuff that all requires far too much energy and space to manufacture. Should environmental and energy concerns be part of setting a population goal with which we are comfortable?
What should our national population goal be before even considering how many legal immigrants to accept?
Not just number of immigrants, but type. Meaning bringing the skills WE need to OUR country, while at the same time leaving room for those seeking freedom and opportunity.
I suspect that 99% of the people who respond to these columns have an immigrant background -- one, two, three, or more generations back. (The 1% hedge is for those Native Americans who voluntarily gave up their lands to us interlopers (uh, at the point of a gun).
An oft overlooked population is those who came here as colonists many generations back, to found a country, versus those who came at least a century later as immigrants to the country founded by the colonists.
So, yes, Native, Colonist and Immigrant descendants.
Not sure if it is true, but I read that living descendants from the countries they all came from as colonists is 15% plus of our total.
I thought Melania was Trump's favorite immigrant.
Touche. You got me.