When I talk with conservative friends about immigration in America, the line I most often hear justifying President Donald Trump’s deportation bonanza is that all these people are criminals by virtue of being here without authorization.
This reminds me of why my mother never learned to swim: Her father insisted she could not swim because she had not taken swim lessons. But in order to take swim lessons, you have to get in the water. He set up a no-win demand that kept her out of the pool her entire life.
The United States has a broken immigration system that both Republicans and Democrats have refused to address even when they have had the power to do so unilaterally. The broken system benefits both parties politically. That’s cynical and disgusting.
Mark Wingfield
Coming to America “the right way,” as conservatives demand, is no longer possible for most people seeking a new life among us. And even “the right way” requires registering in a system that is so broken it takes decades to navigate.
The Trump administration has not sought to fix this problem but instead to kneecap it. Trump has fired immigration judges and dismantled the refugee resettlement program. An already broken system now has been pillaged and left for dead.
So when you demand that immigrants come “the right way,” realize what you are demanding no longer is possible. The door labeled “right way” has been barricaded.
“When you demand that immigrants come ‘the right way,’ realize what you are demanding no longer is possible.”
Another popular talking point is that immigrants are somehow squatting on our property or invading our spaces, causing real harm. One conservative friend compares this to why we erect fences on our properties and lock our doors. We don’t want just everyone passing by to have access to our land and houses, he argues.
The problem here is that immigrants and refugees are not squatting on our property and not entering our houses. The analogy sounds convincing but doesn’t withstand scrutiny. It is a red herring.
Trump and his allies continue to insist they are ridding the country of terrorists and criminals and thugs. Yet time after time, the data show this is another big fat Trump lie.
Here’s reporting this week from the Charlotte Observer, discussing the occupation of North Carolina’s largest city by masked ICE and CBP agents:
Before the U.S. Border Patrol arrived in Charlotte, officials insisted the operation would target “criminal illegal aliens terrorizing Americans.” But so far, that doesn’t really seem to be the case. In a statement released Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said more than 130 arrests were made in the first two days of Operation Charlotte’s Web. According to the statement, just 44 of the people taken into custody actually have a criminal record.
DHS provided detailed information about only 11 people with criminal backgrounds in the statement, which is less than 10% of those detained, so even the 44 figure cannot be verified. It’s also not clear just how many of the 44 alleged criminals are actually guilty of violent crime. While officials have previously said they are focused on arresting gang members, murderers, rapists and pedophiles, the DHS statement named just two alleged gang members and did not mention anyone with a record of murder, rape or pedophilia.
What’s true in Charlotte has been true in Los Angeles and Dallas and Chicago and every other place Trump’s goons have showed up in disguise.
“None of this is about ridding our cities of violent criminals.”
None of this is about ridding our cities of violent criminals. Every bit is instead about scaring Black and brown people in an attempt to make some white people feel safer. As with all things Trump, it is an illusion, a lie.
I was in Charlotte this week and saw firsthand what was happening there. You may read my first-person account here. Please understand this: The people being plucked off the streets in Charlotte — and now also in Raleigh — are not criminals. The “law enforcement” officers abducting them have no warrants and are not even looking for specific people. This is an abduct first, ask questions later operation.
If you want to hate immigrants the way Stephen Miller and Donald Trump do, that’s your right. Doing so is immoral, but you have the right to be immoral. But don’t lie to yourself and others by saying this is about taking criminals off the streets. This is not about punishing law breakers.
It is, instead, blatant racial profiling and white supremacy. If you’re going to support what ICE and CBP are doing, at least own up to why they’re doing it. Today, the party of “law and order” respects neither.
Related articles:
Former Charlotte mayor fears, ‘If you look brown, you’re going down’ | Analysis by Mark Wingfield
What Kristi Noem and DHS won’t admit about clergy-led protests | Analysis by Mara Richards Bim
The history of America’s ‘theology of suspicion’