Children in Cages
Children in Cages
“Is President Trump separating illegal immigrant children from their parents when they cross the border?”
Yes, he is. Or, at least, existing immigration policy is. But so did Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush. That’s assuming they enforced existing immigration laws, which each did, to varying degrees. Mostly, though, they turned a blind eye to immigration abuses, which were (and still are) rampant. It is illegal (for obvious reasons) to incarcerate children with adults, which is why parent and child have to be separated. The only way around this, for the Trump administration, would be to choose not to enforce the law, allowing children and adults to be incarcerated together. Or, he could simply refuse to prosecute families with children as they come across our border, leading to a flood of even more families illegally migrating to the U.S...
In other words, President Trump is simply doing his job, enforcing a Clinton era law. He hasn't created a new policy, any more than the photos from a few weeks ago, showing immigrant children sleeping in cage-like prisons, was a new Trump policy but was actually from Barack Obama’s tenure as president. It didn’t matter, however. The media hammered the one story, while largely ignoring the evidence.
This sleight of hand works for one reason because it panders to people’s biases. For some, children held in cages like animals is what they want to believe about President Trump and his supporters. And they will defend their beliefs against counter-evidence, screaming “Racist!” “White Supremacist!” “Misogynistic, homophobic, trans-phobic, Nazis!” regardless of the facts, indicating in the strongest possible terms who the bigots really are, never seeing the obvious connection to themselves.
There are currently more than 40 million immigrants living in the U.S., more than any time in our history. Likewise, more people legally and illegally migrate to the U.S. every year—about 1.75 million—one million legally, another three-quarters of million illegally.
For much of the 20th century, those numbers were around three hundred and fifty thousand, this was when the average migrant was White. When there was no welfare state to speak of, no section 8 housing, no food stamps, no Medicare, and no Medicaid. Many were seeking to escape the very real mass slaughter of WWI and WWII, totaling 100 million dead. Another 100 million people were murdered by communists, over a 70-year span, creating even more migrants. The conditions that these allegedly privileged White-folk escaped from—and the poverty of the ghettos in the U.S. they escaped to—dwarfs what current immigrants experience. But you’d never know this, listening to the rhetoric of the Left.
In 1910, the population of the U.S. was less than 100 million. Today, there are approx. 330 million Americans. The projected population in a meager 32 years will add 100 million more, most of that growth will be the direct result of immigration. Bringing the total to 438 million people, seeking food, shelter, jobs, education, and healthcare. You’d think that concern for the environment would give people pause, to say nothing of global warming fears. But that’s only if you actually think about it, instead of reacting like a person rooting for their favorite football team, which is how most politics works.
This is precisely why identity politics is anathema to our democratic form of government, hidden just beneath the illusion of concern for the poor and disenfranchised.
Believe me, I could go on about how increasing the labor supply through immigration suppresses wages, especially for the poor. But for now, I’ll leave it there.
Mark Magula
“Is President Trump separating illegal immigrant children from their parents when they cross the border?”
Yes, he is. Or, at least, existing immigration policy is. But so did Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush. That’s assuming they enforced existing immigration laws, which each did, to varying degrees. Mostly, though, they turned a blind eye to immigration abuses, which were (and still are) rampant. It is illegal (for obvious reasons) to incarcerate children with adults, which is why parent and child have to be separated. The only way around this, for the Trump administration, would be to choose not to enforce the law, allowing children and adults to be incarcerated together. Or, he could simply refuse to prosecute families with children as they come across our border, leading to a flood of even more families illegally migrating to the U.S...
In other words, President Trump is simply doing his job, enforcing a Clinton era law. He hasn't created a new policy, any more than the photos from a few weeks ago, showing immigrant children sleeping in cage-like prisons, was a new Trump policy but was actually from Barack Obama’s tenure as president. It didn’t matter, however. The media hammered the one story, while largely ignoring the evidence.
This sleight of hand works for one reason because it panders to people’s biases. For some, children held in cages like animals is what they want to believe about President Trump and his supporters. And they will defend their beliefs against counter-evidence, screaming “Racist!” “White Supremacist!” “Misogynistic, homophobic, trans-phobic, Nazis!” regardless of the facts, indicating in the strongest possible terms who the bigots really are, never seeing the obvious connection to themselves.
There are currently more than 40 million immigrants living in the U.S., more than any time in our history. Likewise, more people legally and illegally migrate to the U.S. every year—about 1.75 million—one million legally, another three-quarters of million illegally.
For much of the 20th century, those numbers were around three hundred and fifty thousand, this was when the average migrant was White. When there was no welfare state to speak of, no section 8 housing, no food stamps, no Medicare, and no Medicaid. Many were seeking to escape the very real mass slaughter of WWI and WWII, totaling 100 million dead. Another 100 million people were murdered by communists, over a 70-year span, creating even more migrants. The conditions that these allegedly privileged White-folk escaped from—and the poverty of the ghettos in the U.S. they escaped to—dwarfs what current immigrants experience. But you’d never know this, listening to the rhetoric of the Left.
In 1910, the population of the U.S. was less than 100 million. Today, there are approx. 330 million Americans. The projected population in a meager 32 years will add 100 million more, most of that growth will be the direct result of immigration. Bringing the total to 438 million people, seeking food, shelter, jobs, education, and healthcare. You’d think that concern for the environment would give people pause, to say nothing of global warming fears. But that’s only if you actually think about it, instead of reacting like a person rooting for their favorite football team, which is how most politics works.
This is precisely why identity politics is anathema to our democratic form of government, hidden just beneath the illusion of concern for the poor and disenfranchised.
Believe me, I could go on about how increasing the labor supply through immigration suppresses wages, especially for the poor. But for now, I’ll leave it there.
Mark Magula