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Trump Panders Some More to the Xenophobic

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump is once again promoting the politics of fear and prejudice.

Now he wants to spend our dollars on a new office to help American victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. He wants to call it the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office.

Once again, Donald Trump works off of false facts. His demagoguery encourages fear, prejudice and bigotry. In his attempt to be viewed as tough on the undocumented, he fosters inaccurate stereotypes.

Immigration does not breed crime. Our prisons are not overflowing because of crimes by the undocumented. They are overflowing because of our failed criminal justice policies and over reliance on incarceration versus treatment and rehabilitation with respect to our nonviolent homegrown offenders.

[More....]

What Donald Trump will succeed at is driving immigrants who happen to be crime victims into the shadows -- they will fear coming forward to report crime or acknowledge they witnessed a crime, out of fear of being deported.

There is no correlation between where one is born and his or her propensity to commit a crime. Crime is the result of a myriad of conditions, from poverty to drug and alcohol abuse to a variety of other factors. Immigration is not one of them.

If Republicans were not so blinded by prejudice, they would admit there is no immigrant crime wave. But they can't. They are Republicans. Fear-mongering and bias against those who don't share their ethnic makeup seems to be innate in them.

I'm not going to take my time to debunk his false facts. I've done it too many times on this issue. Here's the NY Times. Here's a study. Here's a 2015 summary of the available studies .

In related news, Trump is having big problems finding money for his wall. Watch out for a supplemental funding bill-- let your Congresspersons know that you will vote against them in the next election if they authorize funding for a wall. Some Republicans are immune (because they come from the type of Districts that never vote Democrat) but others are vulnerable and may pay attention. If you own stock in a company that's expressed interest in building the wall, let them know you'll dump it. Don't wait until the funding is approved to complain. Once you cede power to the Government, it rarely gives it back.

Also: Trump is spending like a drunken sailor (and the trust fund baby he was raised to be) -- if you have a few hours, check out the solicitation for bids for Homeland Security, including for the Coast Guard (down to thousands of new embroidery and medal insignias for their uniforms -what's wrong with the old ones, or is this for new hires? Plus 4,500 24 karat gold belt buckles, see the Xcel spreadsheet attached to the bid proposal -- a second spread sheet is here), stockpiles of 9 mm amunition for ICE, permanent parking spaces in LA for 60 passenger vans for ICE that have to be within .6 miles of the LA federal building and accessible 24/7, software called "Smarty Streets" that has something to do with checking addresses for immigrant students, and lots more fun stuff.

Trump is an under-informed autocrat, being used by forces he isn't smart enough to understand. The Atlantic a few days ago had an article by David Frum, that notes Trump's autocratic traits and says Americans are baffled:

A president who plausibly owes his office at least in part to a clandestine intervention by a hostile foreign intelligence service? Who uses the bully pulpit to target individual critics? Who creates blind trusts that are not blind, invites his children to commingle private and public business, and somehow gets the unhappy members of his own political party either to endorse his choices or shrug them off? If this were happening in Honduras, we’d know what to call it. It’s happening here instead, and so we are baffled.

I'm not baffled at all, except by the stupidity of the minority of the electorate who voted for him. Frum also writes:

Donald Trump will not set out to build an authoritarian state. His immediate priority seems likely to be to use the presidency to enrich himself. But as he does so, he will need to protect himself from legal risk. Being Trump, he will also inevitably wish to inflict payback on his critics. Construction of an apparatus of impunity and revenge will begin haphazardly and opportunistically. But it will accelerate. It will have to.

Can Congress do anything to stop him? This Congress doesn't want to. Which is why every Republican in Congress should be replaced in 2018. A Trump-proof Congress in 2018 and the courts may be America's only hope for surviving the menace he poses to the nation and the world.

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  • Display: Sort:
    proof is in the eating (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by thomas rogan on Thu Mar 02, 2017 at 10:02:28 PM EST
    If there really aren't any victims of crimes committed by the undocumented then I guess this new office will have nothing to do and will become an embarrassment.

    That is not how scapegoating (none / 0) (#4)
    by MKS on Thu Mar 02, 2017 at 10:07:57 PM EST
    works.  And with the Trump people believing in "alternative facts,"  reality won't matter.

    Parent
    Well, they could start ... (none / 0) (#6)
    by Yman on Fri Mar 03, 2017 at 11:15:43 AM EST
    ... by helping to get rid of some of that straw you're shoveling.

    Parent
    Interesting article (none / 0) (#1)
    by MKS on Wed Mar 01, 2017 at 08:05:11 PM EST


    that is why (none / 0) (#2)
    by linea on Wed Mar 01, 2017 at 08:12:52 PM EST
    sanctuary cities are so important. it ensure all people are protected by police and both witnesses to crime and victims of crime feel free to come forward. it's good policing.

    it was reported on npr that immigrants to america have a lower crime rate than native-born citizens.

    a report on my local npr station stated that there are only 6 (maybe they said 8) states with a recent net possitive increase in illegal immigrants. they explained that most of the increase for WA state was in the seattle area and consisted primarily of (1) indian citizens here on h1b visas who lose their jobs and stay and (2) family members (usually parents) of chinese and korean LPR's who come here on tourist visas.

    So sad... (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Fri Mar 03, 2017 at 08:58:55 AM EST
    I thought Nathaniel Hawthorne taught us of the evil in this Scarlet Letter bullsh&t back in 1850.