Donald Trump finally gave a comprehensive speech on immigration Wednesday. First, he took advantage of what was apparently a perfunctory invitation to both Trump and Hillary Clinton. The optics are of “Donald (Daniel) going into the lion’s den.” A bold move, according to Fox News.
It closely followed Trump’s PR coup last week: visiting flooded Louisiana, ahead of Hillary—while the President was off, playing golf.
The first news about the meeting was a dispute of which of Trump or Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was the liar. Trump says the question of who would pay for his wall was not “discussed.” Meanwhile, Nieto said that he made it very clear, first thing, that Mexico would not be paying for any wall, according to NewsMax.
But—does anyone have to be “lying”? From what they said, Nieto told Trump Mexico wouldn’t pay for the wall, and Trump just moved onto other issues. Therefore, Nieto was telling the truth, and Trump was right, too: a one-sided statement is not a “discussion.”
Let’s move on. Trump then went to deliver his immigration speech at Phoenix, AZ. The full text has been provided by the Daily Caller. Here are the ten points of his plan.
Number One: We will build a wall along the Southern Border.
Number Two: End Catch-And-Release
Number Three: Zero tolerance for criminal aliens.
Number Four: Block Funding For Sanctuary Cities
Number Five: Cancel Unconstitutional Executive Orders & Enforce All Immigration Laws
Number Six: We Are Going To Suspend The Issuance Of Visas To Any Place Where Adequate Screening Cannot Occur
Number Seven: We will ensure that other countries take their people back when we order them deported
Number Eight: We will finally complete the biometric entry-exit visa tracking system.
Number Nine: We will turn off the jobs and benefits magnet.
Number 10: We will reform legal immigration to serve the best interests of America and its workers
What most people will hear is that he “doubled-down” on his demand for a wall, according to Fox News.
There had been a lot of discussion about the wall actually being a fence, or that it would only be in a small area. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry even suggested that it wouldn’t be a physical wall, at all, but rather, some kind of burglar alarm. “‘It’s a wall, but it’s a technological wall, it’s a digital wall,’ Perry said at the time.”
Beyond that, the gist of the speech was that we don’t want illegal aliens here because (a) they are dangerous criminals, and (b) they take American jobs. Trump pointed to anecdotes of specific criminal acts, suggesting that the problem was widespread. But Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal debunked that claim.
. . .numerous studies going back more than a century have shown that immigrants—regardless of nationality or legal status—are less likely than the native population to commit violent crimes or to be incarcerated. A new report from the Immigration Policy Center notes that while the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. more than tripled between 1990 and 2013 to more than 11.2 million, “FBI data indicate that the violent crime rate declined 48%—which included falling rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder. Likewise, the property crime rate fell 41%, including declining rates of motor vehicle theft, larceny/robbery, and burglary.”
REPORT: The Criminalization of Immigration in the United States
A separate IPC paper from 2007 explains that this is not a function of well-behaved high-skilled immigrants from India and China offsetting misdeeds of Latin American newcomers. The data show that “for every ethnic group without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants,” according to the report. “This holds true especially for the Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans who make up the bulk of the undocumented population.”
It also holds true in states with large populations of illegal residents. A 2008 report by the Public Policy Institute of California found that immigrants are underrepresented in the prison system. . .
High-profile incidents, like the recent arrest of a Mexican national in the horrific shooting death of a young woman in San Francisco, can give the impression that immigrants are more likely to commit violent crimes. But the alleged killer is no more representative of Mexican immigrants than Dylann Roof is representative of white people.
Every immigrant here illegally has already broken a law, though that doesn’t mean they are predisposed to crime. In a 2005 paper, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reported that more recently arrived immigrants are even less crime-prone than their predecessors. In 1980 the incarceration rate of foreign nationals was about one percentage point below natives. A decade later that had fallen to a little more than a percentage point, and by 2000 it was almost three percentage points lower.
Trump’s hardline speech had at least one unintended consequence. He’s losing his Hispanic surrogates, according to Politico.
Several major Latino surrogates for Donald Trump are reconsidering their support for him following the Republican nominee’s hardline speech on immigration Wednesday night.
Jacob Monty, a member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council, quickly resigned after the speech. Another member, Ramiro Pena, a Texas pastor, said Trump’s speech likely cost him the election and said he’d have to reconsider being part of a “scam.” And Alfonso Aguilar, the president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said in an interview that he is “inclined” to pull his support.
“I was a strong supporter of Donald Trump when I believed he was going to address the immigration problem realistically and compassionately,” said Monty, a Houston attorney who has aggressively made the Latino case for Trump. “What I heard today was not realistic and not compassionate.”. . .
“I am so sorry but I believe Mr. Trump lost the election tonight,” said Pena, a pastor at Waco’s Christ the King Church. “The ‘National Hispanic Advisory Council’ seems to be simply for optics and I do not have the time or energy for a scam.”. . .
“It’s so disappointing because we feel we took a chance, a very risky chance,” Aguilar said. “We decided to make a big U-turn to see if we could make him change. We thought we were moving in the right direction … we’re disappointed. We feel misled.”
Aguilar said he was not speaking on behalf of any organization, and hadn’t reached a final conclusion, but was deeply troubled by Trump’s address, saying that while the campaign has recently promised to deal with undocumented immigrants already living in the country in a “humane” way, “did you hear anything in that speech that was compassionate and humane? No.”
He went on to add, “I can tell you there’s a real possibility we will withdraw support from Donald Trump because of that disappointing speech.”
The whole immigration issue is incongruous, considering 140,000 more Mexicans have gone home than have entered the US during President Obama’s term, according to Pew.
It also ignores that Obama has been the “Deporter-in-Chief,” also according to Pew.
. . .the so-called soft-on-immigration Obama administration deported more unauthorized immigrants during its first six years than the Republican George W. Bush administration did over its full eight.
Between 2009 and 2014, 2.4 million people were deported from the U.S., according to a Pew Research data analysis released Wednesday.
Republican-American agrees with these analyses.
Hillary Clinton supporters take solace in her dwindling lead over Trump, hoping it will last through November. What they forget is that Donald Trump will say—and do—anything—anything—to get what he wants. He doesn’t rest. He doesn’t yield. He just keeps pounding, like a prize fighter. Those who see him only as his fake World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) persona risk being knocked out. 7-8-9-10-DING!
