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.
To Washington Examiner editors:
Immigration crisis over?????????????????
Where the h*ll do you live??? North Korea??????
He really is, isn’t he? At least a column a day bashing Trump. It’s like these guys get paid by the word.
They have been using the number 11,000,000 for years, as if millions and millions more haven’t slimed there way in over the years.
I heard him. There is an easy solution. Enforce the law.
So we lost the war. Damn!
Thank God we dont connect to SYRIA by rail....
Are you new to the immigration debate or just a Rubio fan?
DISQUALIFY MARCO RUBIO FOR LYING ABOUT AMNESTY IN SPANISH
The law is being enforced, but the problem is that it’s not enough in itself. Mexican immigration, which seems to be the only thing that concerns Trump, is way down, partly because it’s difficult for your average worker to get here (which has been a problem for the construction industry in the US) and partly because the economy has improved in parts of Mexico and there’s simply less need to emigrate.
In any case, a lot of the illegal immigration from Mexico is not Mexican, but people from all over the world brought in by criminal gangs of people smugglers. Mexico does try to keep them out, but it has a huge coastline and Cuba is busy serving as a waypoint for the people smugglers. Venezuela is another big entry point.
The problem is our weak federal laws. Some people can’t be legally deported when picked up by local law enforcement because their countries refuse them, many of them cannot be punished here because their countries don’t permit it, and then of course we have the idiotic “sanctuary cities,” which appear to have laws that are so strange that it’s hard to know where to begin.
So I think Rubio was right, and I think that what is really necessary is a revision of our immigration system from the ground up.
Nevermind. I am new. Have to check before I post.
livius...”I’m a Spanish legal translator by profession and live in St Augustine, Florida.”
Now its just not happening.
LOL
Tell this guy to visit Atlanta.
...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....,
yea real small until it happens to you..and illegals come from hundreds of countries not just the narco violent Mexico..
idiots they shot themselves in the foot with their ink pens....
Wish there was a way to get the Editors of the The Washington Examiner to look at this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE
That’s damn depressing.
“It’s also that mass illegal immigration just isn’t happening anymore”
I just escaped Mexifornia- it is thoroughly invaded and ruined. American students are sitting in classes that are taught in Spanish! The DC elite is acting just like Big Brother, lying about things we can see clearly.
I would move.
I escaped Mexifornia and love being in the US now!
“Mexicans are not the big problem. The largest number of illegals are the Chinese, ...”
I’m not hearing ‘press 2 for Mandarin’, or even 3.
Apparently they are at least smart enough to learn English, if what you are saying is true. But having just escaped Mexifornia, the Chinese didn’t ruin that state.
“I just hope it is not some massive federal contractor project ...”
If it’s handled as incompetently as healthcare.gov, it will cost 100s of billions and fall down the first day.
Actually the environmental impact study will take 5 years at least.
Operation Wetback was extremely successful- 25% were deported and the rest left on their own.
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