Trump's call to freeze legal immigration into the U.S. doesn't get mentioned much in the "news." But that's part of the hateful garbage that he and the KKK senator, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, came up with as Trump's official policy on immigration. It certainly is thrilling, the racist scum among us. Ann Coulter was so excited this morning that she was in a tweeting frenzy of Trump adulation: And keep in mind that what Trump says he wants to do is forcibly round up and deport 11 million immigrants, a population about the size of Ohio or Georgia, more than the entire populations of North Carolina, Michigan or New Jersey. Price tag? Something in the vicinity of half a trillion dollars. I'm sure Ann Coulter would be happy to chip in her share. Warren G. Harding, who American historians consider the second worst president in history, campaigned on rounding up Mexicans and sending them back, and after he was elected he managed to send, often brutally, 60,000 immigrants back over the Texas border. Not many Republicans have spoken out against Trump's racist agenda, although Lindsey Graham-- polling zero in the polls of likely Republican voters-- did say on Face the Nation that the immigration plan most Republican politicians seem perfectly comfortable with is making it look like the GOP is "going backward on immigration and taking us all with him." Chuck Todd stood there like a dummy when Trump flat-out lied that immigrants are the cause of a "tremendous" crime wave. Todd knows perfectly well that's false, but he let it stand... his "exclusive" interview with ratings magnet Trump is what he had in mind, not getting any semblance of truth out to his viewers.
Donald Trump would reverse President Obama's executive orders on immigration and deport all undocumented immigrants from the U.S. as president, he said in an exclusive interview with NBC's Chuck Todd. "We're going to keep the families together, but they have to go," he said in the interview... Pressed on what he'd do if the immigrants in question had nowhere to return to, Trump reiterated: "They have to go." "We will work with them. They have to go. Chuck, we either have a country, or we don't have a country," he said. Speaking on Trump's gilded private plane as it idled on a runway in Des Moines, Iowa, the real-estate mogul and Republican presidential frontrunner offered the first outlines of the immigration policy proposals he'd implement from the Oval Office. Trump said, to begin, "we have to" rescind Obama's executive order offering those brought to the U.S. illegally as children-- known as DREAMers-- protection from deportation, as well as Obama's unilateral move to delay deportation for their families as well.
Fox's Megyn Kelly asked tougher and more interesting questions of Trump than Todd. She at least came off as a journalist. Todd could have asked Trump if he's thought about the economic consequences of going with Sessions' KKK plan. He didn't. Will any of the top GOP contenders take on Trump's plans for 11 million undocumented workers? He's still-- literally-- insisting that he can "make" Mexico pay for the wall he wants to build. From his bellicose policy paper:
[T]he Mexican government has taken the United States to the cleaners. They are responsible for this problem, and they must help pay to clean it up. The cost of building a permanent border wall pales mightily in comparison to what American taxpayers spend every single year on dealing with the fallout of illegal immigration on their communities, schools and unemployment offices. Mexico must pay for the wall and, until they do, the United States will, among other things: impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards-- of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options]. We will not be taken advantage of anymore.
And he says he'll triple the number of ICE employees. Is Mexico going to pay for that too? This isn't a serious plan to solve any problems. It's a trope to the nationalistic yahoos and racists who will be voting in the Republican primaries and caucuses.
When politicians talk about “immigration reform” they mean: amnesty, cheap labor and open borders. The Schumer-Rubio immigration bill was nothing more than a giveaway to the corporate patrons who run both parties. Real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first-- not wealthy globetrotting donors. We are the only country in the world whose immigration system puts the needs of other nations ahead of our own. That must change. Here are the three core principles of real immigration reform: 1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border. 2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced. 3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.
Instead of rushing to denounce Trump's hideously racist plan-- predicated on a nativist police state-- other Republican candidates are embracing it, and not just sociopaths like Ted Cruz. Yesterday on Fox News Sunday the Koch candidate, Scott Walker, said his own immigration plan is "very similar" to Trump's and that it was his plan before it was Trump's. Walker, of course, wants to build a wall to keep Mexicans out, but he also wants to force undocumented immigrants out of the country.
I've said no amnesty. I don’t believe in amnesty, which I think is similar to what he said... [W]e should give priority to American working families and their wages, in a way that will improve the American economy.
Even the third-tier Republican candidates are unrelenting in stirring up hatred and prejudice against immigrants. Bobby Jindal, whose own parents, Amar and Raj Jindal, were immigrants from Malerkotla in the Punjab (India), has his own axe to grind. "Muslim immigrants might want to come and try to impose some variant of sharia law" is a line he often uses in his scare-mongering psychosis. Also-rans like Huckabee and Santorum use the old Know-Nothing trope that immigrants are ruining the economy. "Immigrants are rushing over," explained Huckabee, who loudly makes believe he's a Christian, "because they've heard there's a bowl of food across the border." And the nasty Santorum, an avowed racist, said, "Maybe providing tuition for immigrants was an attempt to attract the illegal vote-- I mean the Latino voters." The latest Fox News poll was taken before Trump issued his and Sessions' plan to deport 11 million immigrants-- but after he had started on his Know-Nothing appeal to the lowest bunch of racists in American society. He's still leading all the other Republican contenders for the GOP presidential nomination:
Trump- 25%Carson- 12%Cruz- 10%Jeb!- 9%Huckabee- 6%Walker- 6%Fiorina- 5%Kasich- 4%Rubio- 4%Rand Paul- 3%Christie- 3%
Everyone else is at 1% or zero. A plurality of those polled say Trump won the debate. Interestingly, though, Trump's numbers were through the roof when pollsters asked Republicans who they find the "least likeable."
Trump- 37%Rand Paul- 11%Jeb!- 9%Christie- 9%Lindsey Graham- 4%
Trump also came out on top when Republican voters were asked to identify the GOP candidate least qualified to be president (52%), with Ted Cruz coming in second with 35%. Pablo Manriquez responded to Trump's anti-immigration jihad yesterday on behalf of the DNC, where he is director of Hispanic media:
Trump has reignited the GOP’s longstanding obsession with mass deportation. Like his fellow GOP candidates Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio and others, GOP front runner Trump dismisses a full and equal pathway to citizenship for hardworking immigrants. The GOP should quit treating these families as second class citizens and join Democrats who support immigrant families and want to keep them together.
We asked a couple of the Blue America candidates who were born to immigrant parents what they think about Trump's anti-immigrant screed. Ruben Kihuen's family came from Mexico, and he has been one of the most progressive members of the Nevada legislature. Yesterday he told us that he is--
deeply disappointed but unsurprised by Mr. Trump's recent comments about undocumented immigrants. His plan foolishly ignores the negative economic impact of deporting so many people and would only harm millions of hard working families just trying to make a decent living. Most troubling, Mr. Trump chose to focus on DREAMers. Simply put, he is demonizing children for attention and to score political points. He should be ashamed.
Hermosa Beach Mayor Nanette Barragán was born and raised in the Carson area of what is now CA-44 in L.A.'a South Bay. She's running for Congress in that district, a district where 70% of the population is Hispanic. She hasn't been thrilled with Trump's demonization of immigrants.
You could fill an encyclopedia with what Mr. Trump doesn’t understand about immigrants from Mexico," she told us this morning. "My own mother and father were immigrants from Mexico. They came here because they believed in the same thing we all do: If you work hard and you make a positive contribution to your community, you can give your children the opportunity to have a better life than the one you have. And isn't that what the American dream is all about? We are a nation of immigrants. Mr. Trump's proposed immigration plan jeopardizes that and fails to acknowledge what immigrants from all countries, including Mexico, give to our country.
If you'd like to help Ruben and Nanette win their congressional races, you can find both on the same Blue America page. In fact, every candidate endorsed by Blue America has endorsed comprehensive immigration reform, which is both humane and effective and very much NOT related to the partisan ugliness being espoused by the Donald Trumps and Scott Walkers of the world.
