Posted on 09/17/2015 4:25:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Donald Trump had a relatively poor performance in Wednesday night's CNN debate. But one of his stronger moments — at least from the point of view of his supporters — came when the topic of immigration arose.
"We're going to have a country again," he said in defending his ambitious (and probably unfeasible) plan to build a wall along the entire Mexican border and deport 11 million illegal immigrants. Each time Trump, who is number one in the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings, describes how hordes of foreigners are overrunning and destroying the country, he speaks to what many perceive as a major and underappreciated threat facing America.
But in reality, the problem over which Trump obsesses now ran its course long ago. Mass immigration was last decade's big problem in the U.S., not today's. It's not just that immigration levels are lower today than they were in previous periods of greater peace and economic growth, such as the turn of the Twentieth Century. It's also that mass illegal immigration just isn't happening anymore, the recent influx of child migrants notwithstanding.
As the Pew Research Center has illustrated with data, illegal immigrants are also leaving the U.S. since 2007 faster than have been coming in. And there are fewer illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States today than there were in 2005.
Why? A major reason is that Mexico, the largest source of illegal immigrants to the U.S., became a better place to live. It shed its socialistic one-party political system in the late 1990s and adopted the very sort of free-trade policies that Trump now criticizes. Mexico signed free trade agreements with 44 different countries. Its exports increased six-fold. The share of Mexicans surviving on less than two dollars per day plunged from 20 percent in 1996 to just 4 percent in 2012.
Thus, the economic desperation that causes mass migration from Mexico has declined. Meanwhile, Mexico's new crackdown on Central American immigrant traffic will likely lower the rate of illegal immigration to the U.S. even further.
This is not to say that immigration enforcement is a non-issue. For example, President Obama's unilateral attempt to confer legal status on millions of illegal residents is a brazen, lawless challenge to America's constitutional order.
Moreover, the idea of politically correct municipal governments protecting convicted criminals from deportation is something no reasonable person should accept. This is why the much-maligned establishment GOP leaders in Congress are set to pass a law against sanctuary city policies (it has already passed the House).
Yet even on that very legitimate issue of safety, the available evidence suggests a criminal immigrant problem that is much smaller than Trump's rhetoric.
Take his own question, designed to cater to feminist hysteria: "Who is doing the raping?" In Texas, whose government tracks immigrant crime, legal and illegal immigrants together comprise about 16.5 percent of the population and (averaged over a four-year period) about 19 percent of those charged with rape and the other crimes that fall under the state's definition of "sexual assault" in any given year.
Part of taking the immigration issue seriously involves talking about it. Trump has done that. But another part involves talking about it truthfully and offering realistic solutions. There, he continues to fail.
My neighborhood is at least 85% Hispanic.
“But in reality, the problem over which Trump obsesses now ran its course long ago. Mass immigration was last decade’s big problem in the U.S., not today’s.”
Never mind all of the south of Mexico immigrants who are riding the rails into America...
http://www.inquisitr.com/1345032/mexican-train-derails-with-1000-illegal-immigrants-riding-on-top/
July 10, 2014
Tell that to Texas and the other border states, you idiots. We have spent billions feeding,educating, medicating and incarcerating Mexico’s citizens, without a shred of thanks from the La Raza militants, and we are sick and tired of it. Gov. Abbott should pay for their bus fare to D. C. Life would be so much better if Switzerland was our southern neighbor.
Oh. The examiner. Whew. I thought it was the times. Never mind irrelevant
Still fox rush Hewitt all touting fiorina. Yuk. What is she even running for ? Whose side is she on ?
This part was funny, though:
Meanwhile, Mexico's new crackdown on Central American immigrant traffic will likely lower the rate of illegal immigration to the U.S. even further.
Because you can always trust the Mexican authorities to do what they say and do it well and not take any money for making "exceptions."
What a crock of crap. Why do so many DC elites hate Americans? Aren’t they Americans?
I knew the Examiner was a sham when they hired Byron York. He’s such a GOPe tool.
And 99% illegal.
Hilarious.
Mexican illegal immigration is no big deal? Ended long ago?
And we can depend on them to beat down the poor Central Americans? Hell, the Central Americans are less of a threat. They have no claim on the Southwest like Mexico asserts. The average Guatemalan really is just looking for a meal.
Must be nice to sit in D.C. and pontificate. They obviously haven’t been to the towns that I live or have lived in all my life. Those places are becoming unrecognizable, and I don’t recall having to live under the rule of Mexican politicians when I was growing up.
Are you really that stupid or are you just mentally ill. We have well over 20 million illegals that have come across the border and they are still coming.
Mexicans are not the big problem. The largest number of illegals are the Chinese, divided between visa overstayers, people who arrive in shipping containers, and people being smuggled over our southern border after having come through Cuba and other leftist places that Mexico has been trying to block.
Cuba is a big facilitator of human trafficking. But of course, Barry doesn’t care.
Rubio had the best answer: there are three separate problems. One is the borders and people who come or are smuggled in illegally. Another is the people we bring in legally, who do not meet our needs but happen to have relatives here. And the third is people who have gotten here illegally (or legally but have overstayed their visas) but have lived here for years, own businesses, etc.
Rubio said these things have to be sorted out, and I think he’s right. Trump may make people feel good by blaming all of our ills on illegal Mexican yard guys or laborers, but that’s not where the problem lies. And his “solution” is unworkable anyway, even if it makes people feel good, and will not solve future problems any more than the Reagan amnesty did.
One good thing Rubio said is that we shouldn’t accept people just because they have family here, but they should be accepted based on what the US needs (laborers? tech people? scientists? or whatever is needed).
We have to develop an immigration policy that works for the US, and then clear up the errors of the past couple of decades. Also...no more Muslims, please. We’d be better off with 100 Mexicans for every Muslim that Barry is bringing in.
Who are you going to believe, the Washington Examiner or your lying eyes?
5.56mm
No I was wrong
Not the wash times which is a very trusty publication
Presented as a Public Service
Certain FReepers may need this
Click the Pic
Reliable sources show that number as 37 million now. If you factor in the counting of anchors babies as "Americans", the real number is 49.5 million! Here in Texas, even the billboards on the freeways are messkin using the colors of that third-world cesspool's flag. Ridiculous!
Many of the illegals are coming through Mexico you dimwits at the Washington Examiner.
That was my first thought.
It’s not ‘over’. That’s like saying....”Dude, that’s like two years ago.”
Stupid enough to elect Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton twice and Odumbo twice. That's how stupid they think we are.
Self contradictory. If the problem is reversing itself and there are fewer and fewer of them in the U.S. then why would securing the border and escorting the remainder out be ‘unfeasible’?
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