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If Democrats on Capitol Hill accept Donald Trump's Thursday, January 25th, 2018 immigration plan - in its current form - then they can kiss Congress goodbye again come this November's mid-term elections...and the same goes for the presidency in 2020. Latinos and Hispanics will stay home and not vote. Why vote if Democrats won't save them from Trump and the Republicans? And losing those votes may mean the difference in a U.S. Senate or House of Representatives race...and in the presidential election.
Trump's plan claims to offer a path to citizenship for about two-and-a-half- million undocumented immigrants. But the deal also demands funding for a U.S./Mexico border wall. In an impromptu gathering with reporters at The White House on Wednesday, January 24th, Trump laid down his threat..."If you don't have a wall, you don't have DACA." DACA is the Deferred Action for Childhoold Arrivals program that was created in 2012 under President Barack Obama and that granted about 800-thousand undocumented immigrants the temporary right to live, study and work in the United States. These young people - known as "Dreamers" - were brought to the United States when they were children by their parents. Some Dreamers came to the U.S. when they were so young that they probably have no memory of their birthplace. But on January 25th, Trump threatened further. The White House says that if Congress doesn't act like Monty Hall and "make a deal" for the wall money...then Trump and his cronies can't guarantee that the Dreamers won't be deported when the current DACA protections expire on March 5th. One senior White House official told reporters that Dreamers "won't be targeted, but if they fall in to the hands of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents) for some reason" then deportation would be inevitable. To send Dreamers to foreign lands with no homes and no jobs would be un-American and totally disgraceful.
Donald Trump's immigration plan disgusts me. And it's not going to satisfy Americans whose ethnic heritage is Mexican...or, for that matter, any U.S. citizen whose family history stems from any Spanish-speaking nation.
Trump's insistence...that an arrangement to help undocumented immigrants must include a border wall...is a deal that gives off a racist odor. As I have written in many previous columns...no matter what...America should not...and cannot...have such a wall. And when push comes to shove...I am still confident that a wall will never be built.
Yet...that being said...Trump wants 25-billion dollars to pay for the wall. That, however, is really the price tag so that someday - not now, but someday - currently registered "Dreamers" can become United States citizens...along with another 1.8-million undocumented immigrants who the Trump Administration believes will meet the necessary requirements to fit the same status, but who never registered for DACA six years ago. The Trump plan says all of the aforementioned undocumented immigrants must provide "good moral character" as they go to work and/or school. And The White House says that a person's "status can be revoked in light of criminal conduct, public safety concerns, national security concerns, fraud or a public charge."
But Trump is in no hurry to help these young people become U.S. citizens, as he told reporters on January 24th. "We're going to morph in to it. It's going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of ten to twelve years." Why wait that long? According to Wikipedia..."Research shows that (undocumented - they use the word "illegal" but I refuse to) immigrants increase the size of the U.S. economy, contribute to economic growth, enhance the welfare of natives, and contribute more in tax revenue than they collect"...just to mention a few of the benefits in granting American citizenship to undocumented immigrants . Furthermore, "there is no evidence" - according to The Washington Post - "that (undocumented) immigrants increase the rate of crime in the United States. There is a scholarly consensus that (undocumented) immigrants commit less crime than natives."
So why punish undocumented immigrants? Every single Dreamer and other undocumented immigrants should be guaranteed U.S. citizenship now...not in ten or twelve years. In fact, I want to give all 11-million or more undocumented immigrants citizenship in our country. Let them stay. As long as they haven't broken the law...let them stay. Take them out of hiding and give them the freedom to stay in America. That IS what America is all about. Freedom.
DACA Dreamers...and many other undocumented immigrants...have been in the United States nearly all their lives. Trump should not string them along for an extended length of time. On January 24th, he told reporters that if the Dreamers do a great job, I think it's a nice thing to have the incentive of, after a period of years, being able to become a citizen." But Dreamers have gone to school in America...they work in America...and the Pentagon says that 900 Dreamers are currently serving in the U.S. military. How much more of a "great job" must they do?
To make things worse...the Trump immigration plan calls for an end to family reunification...which Trump has nastily labeled...our nation's "horrible" system of "chain migration." Would Trump want his family to be broken apart forever? Immigrants deserve a family reunification visa program so that immigrants who are already living in the United States can bring relatives to America too. Visas are granted according to a "family tree." Green card holders or legal residents can petition the Immigration Service with a request...so that their spouses...and their minor children...can be allowed to move to the U.S. Once the petitioner is granted citizenship, they can then apply to have their parents, married children and adult siblings brought to America too. It is critical that Democrats in Congress fight to continue family reunification.
The U.S. Senate's Assistant Minority Leader, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin says, "Dreamers should not be held hostage to (Donald) Trump's crusade to tear families apart and waste billions of American tax dollars on an ineffective wall. This plan would put the Administration's entire hard-line immigration agenda - including massive cuts to legal immigration - on the backs of those young people." Putting the brakes on family reunification is tragically wrong.
The majority of Dreamers were born in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. And I remind you that Mexico and El Salvador were just two of the nations that Trump, on January 11th, called "shithole countries" when - according to The Washington Post (and confirmed by Senator Durbin and others who were in The Oval Office at the time) - Trump uttered that vulgar slur that also attacked every nation in the African continent. After Trump's vile language, I can't imagine any Latin-American - or any African-American - voting for Trump in 2020...should he not resign or be impeached and removed from office before our next presidential election. Day by day, it's becoming more and more apparent that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is obtaining sufficient evidence that just might evict Donald Trump from The White House.
As I've stated for about a year, Donald Trump will be forced to resign should Mueller - upon concluding his investigation - prove Trump's involvement in a conspiracy (and subsequent cover-up) to collude with Russia in an effort to interfere with the 2016 election between Trump and Hillary Clinton...and to then later obstruct justice by firing James Comey as FBI Director in order to put a stop to the Russia probe. In addition, on January 25th, The New York Times reported that Trump ordered in June 2017 that Mueller be fired. But the newspaper says that White House Counsel Don McGahn refused to obey Trump's command...to advise the Justice Department...that Trump wanted Mueller given the ax. As a result - according to The New York Times - McGahn threatened to resign. And when Trump heard that...he backed off from firing Mueller. All this is additional ammunition for Mueller to show obstruction of justice by Trump. And you may recall that Trump told reporters in August 2017 that he never had any thought to dismiss Mueller. So Donald Trump lied. Nothing new about that.
Lying is, after all, par for the course with Trump. Remember during the presidential campaign when he first began his quest to construct a wall on our southern border...and that Mexico would pay for it? He lied then too since he now wants America to foot the bill. And as Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois tweeted on January 25th...Trump's immigration plan is "25-billion dollars" in "ransom for Dreamers." Meanwhile, Democratic Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico says..."We cannot allow the lives of young people who have done everything right to be used as bargaining chips for sweeping anti-immigrant policies. The White House is using Dreamers to mask their underlying xenophobic, isolationist, and un-American policies, which will harm millions of immigrants living in the United States and millions of others who want to legally immigrate and contribute to our country."
But in a January 25th tweet by Angel Padilla of the progressive movement, Indivisible...Padilla echoes what I have been writing about in The Controversy for a very long time. That Donald Trump's desire for a wall...his profanity and offensive insults towards Mexicans...all Latinos...African-Americans...and other minorities...are all forms of pure racism. And Padilla says the immigration plan by Trump and his racist sidekicks is "about one thing: white supremacy. It is about fundamentally changing the makeup of our country by removing people of color and preventing them from coming in the first place."
One reader of my January 20th column wrote me this week and accused "the left and the media" of portraying Donald Trump as a racist. Liberals and the press don't need to do anything to portray Trump as a racist. He does that all by himself.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.
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Let me start by saying we need better boarder security including a wall, history has shown a country without secure boarders is doomed to collapse. Next I do believe we must do something to solve the dreamer problem. I think what was proposed or will be proposed by the President is a very good starting point for a bipartisan solution. I don’t think they should be given immediate citizenship; they should have to follow the standard rules for immigrants. To become a US citizen the law requires 4 main items, there may be a few other items but the 4 main ones are: be 18 years or older, be a lawful Green Card holder (a Legal Permanent Resident), have been lawfully in the United States for the last 5 years consecutively, have no felony criminal record. Being that the dreamers would have only been legally in the US from the time any new law is passed they should still have to wait the minimum of 5 years. Maybe they should be made to wait a year or two more as a deterrent for future illegal immigrants from coming here. I would have a few exceptions, the first being anyone who serves in the US Military should be offered immediate citizenship (if dishonorably discharged that citizenship should be revoked), anyone who has already served and was honorably discharged should be offered citizenship, and there should be a few other service related exceptions. As for you refusing to use the term Illegal immigrant, they entered the US illegally therefore they are illegal immigrant. But it is time to make those who were brought here as minors legal. The rest of the illegal immigrants should be given a pathway to legalization if they meet certain condition such as they don’t have any felony convictions, pay any back taxes owed and are sponsored by a legal US citizen or resident, without the right to become a US citizens with only a few exception as listed above. Dick Durbin and others are using scare tactics; nobody is suggesting a “crusade to tear families apart” the proposal to revise chain migration would limit it to parents, children and spouses, no longer allowing your 2nd cousin and his siblings to head on over. As for the visa lottery it should be done away with, you should need a reason for the USA to accept you or a skill needed or something, it should not be the luck of the draw. I don’t understand why you have interject your dislike for the President and your partisan opinion on the Mueller investigation into ever column you write. The Russia investigation (which there has been no proof that the President or his campaign did any illegal with Russia) has nothing to do with DACA or the wall or anything at all with immigration. Anyone who reads your column knows how you feel about the President and in general about conservatives. Please stick to your topic and stop the Trump bashing.
ReplyDelete1) My column stands. There's no need for me to comment further about Donald Trump's wall that will never be built. I have expressed my thoughts and I have nothing more to say.
Delete2) My column stands. There's no need for me to comment further about the Dreamers and all undocumented immigrants. I have expressed my thoughts and I have nothing more to say.
3) As for immigration laws, they need to be changed. Waiting 5 years for citizenship is much too long. But I will add this one point regarding the Dreamers. You remark that "Being that the Dreamers would have only been legally in the U.S. from the time any new law is passed, they should still have to wait the minimum of 5 years." That's bull. President Obama allowed the Dreamers to "legally" stay - albeit on a temporary basis - in the United States since 2012. That's 6 years. And your remark that "Maybe they should be made to wait a year or two more as a deterrent for future illegal immigrants from coming here." is ludicrous. Refugees can come to our country after being vetted about 18 to 24 months. There's no reason to wait 5, 6 or 7 years - as you suggest - for a person to become a U.S. citizen.
4) Senator Dick Durbin doesn't use "scare tactics." He speaks the facts.
5) I do not "interject" - to use your word - a dislike for Donald Trump or any "partisan opinion on the Mueller investigation" in every column I write. However, I have discussed special counsel Bob Mueller and his Russia probe in some recent columns because everyday more and more evidence is revealed that shows that Trump is eventually going to be removed from office - either by resignation (which is what I have said for a year or more)...or through House of Representatives impeachment and Senate conviction, which I don't think Trump will put himself through. He will resign long before that. Trump himself digs his political grave deeper and deeper every time he opens his mouth or tweets. He is scared to death of Bob Mueller and there has got to be a reason why he has tried to put an end to the Russia investigation. He tried by firing James Comey. And now there is evidence that Trump tried to fire Mueller himself. Two reasons that Trump will eventually be formally accused of obstruction of justice. The handwriting is already on the wall. And - as I have written in the past - more and more people who were...or still are...part of the Trump White House...are going to come out from the woodwork and - in order to save their own butts - they are going throw Trump under the bus. These aides to Trump...some of them senior aides...are not going to risk prison for anybody...not even Donald Trump. And once Trump is subpeonaed to testify before a grand jury...well...wait and watch what happens. America is on the brink of a constitutional crisis. And as I wrote in a previous column, if Mike Pence is found to be involved in a cover-up...and both he and Trump resign sometime after January 1, 2019 when the House of Representatives is controlled by the Democrats (as I believe the Democrats will win the House in the November mid-term elections) then the Speaker of the House will be a Democrat...and therefore, come January or shortly thereafter, we will have a Democrat in The White House. A resignation by Trump and Pence gives the presidency to the Speaker of the House. To summarize, I did not go off topic in my column because the racism of the wall ties in with Trump's vicious character and vulgar actions...not to mention his mentally ill temperament. All this needs noting when it comes to much of what Trump does on a daily basis. Besides...I don't know if it's you - since you're using the anonymous banner - but many of my readers when they respond to my columns...do frequently - for no reason whatsoever - trash President Obama, President Clinton and Secretary Clinton. Most of my Republican readers sound just like Trump. There is no "Trump bashing"...just the facts.
GBD