Undocumented immigration is not a problem and conflating it with terrorism is misguided and untrue. Over the nearly eight-year executive run of President Barack Obama 2.8 million undocumented immigrants have been deported. What the Republican Party does not want you to know is, during the George W. Bush administration in 2007 there were 20,000 border patrol agents and 370 miles of fencing. By 2013 according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, border security agents increased to 21,400 and the fencing coverage increased to 651 miles. Along with those increases camera surveillance increased from 105 units to 300. Most importantly by 2013 illegal border crossings had dropped from approximately 600,000 to 85,000. The Immigration and Naturalization Service, in 2015, reported a negative net gain in immigration.
Republicans are using the same fear tactics as a political football to garner votes as they did with the LGBTQ community for years. Suggesting you guard your children from harm and vilifying gay men and women as being a threat to the democracy and all mankind worked from Nixon to Bush. Now that use of political posturing is being used with immigration as the new scary thing under the bed. I am appalled that liberals adopt the fallacy of this strategy and give it credence by arguing the point. The simple answer is, WE DO NOT HAVE AN IMMIGRATION PROBLEM! The FBI reports that 6.5 percent of the immigrant population is or has committed a crime. Pointing out horrendous anecdotal crime statistics perpetrated by undocumented aliens is not unveiling a major scourge on society, it is a fear tactic. If you substitute anecdote for reason, then let us close down Stanford University. The California penal system just released, as of today, former student Brock Turner who was convicted of rape. Brock served 3 months of a 6-month jail sentence.
It would be stupid to say well this guy is a rapist so we need to bar Stanford from any further academic participation, “until we figure out what the hell is going on.” We have allowed Donald Trump to make that argument in public forums without challenge when we really should be pointing out what it really deserves, ridicule. The people who are unlawful immigrants in this country who commit heinous crimes should be dealt with swiftly and with the harshest penalties the law allows. Their crimes are not some genetic symptom of heritage or ethnicity they are simply bad people like the hundreds of rapist, thieves and murderers born within our borders. My beloved niece was raped and murdered some years ago in Washington DC, I would be foolish to suggest constructing a wall around the city.
For years Republicans have used bogeymen, Willie Horton, the gay community and now Hispanics immigrants. European immigrants who, by the way, are the majority of undocumented aliens in this country are ignored in conversation because conveniently brown people are easily identifiable and easily stereotyped. Mr. Trump went to Mexico smiled, looked stately and shook the hand of Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto, a few hours later he effectively conducted what could be subjectively called a hate rally in Arizona later that night. We need to demand real issues be debated. The debate is not what color pant suit Hillary Clinton is wearing or would I like her as my friend; the question is, who is competent to do the job?
Vote 2016
