Think of the issues Republicans could be campaigning on. There’s a solid economy, lots of jobs, two Supreme Court justices. Donald Trump’s advisers have told him to play up the positives. But Trump being Trump, he’s decided to fallback on fear, a tried a true staple of the 2016 campaign. And he thinks the ‘migrant caravan’ is a political gift.
Trump threatens drastic action on immigration in bid to energize GOP voters, by @DavidNakamura @partlowj @WPJohnWagnerhttps://t.co/B2lqbYblw8
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) October 18, 2018
He’s threatened to call off the NAFTA deal, seal the border with Mexico, if the “caravan” isn’t stopped.
Currently there are several thousand Central Americans trekking north towards Mexico with hope of applying for asylum in the United States. To listen to Trump you’d think Attila the Hun was on the march. But here’s the deal. This caravan is no different than many others which have been coming to America for a long time. From The Associated Press:
U.S.-bound migrant caravans have been going on for years — with traveling in numbers seen as offering protection from assaults, robberies, even shakedowns by police. They’re also a cheaper alternative to the $7,000 to $10,000 that smugglers, charge for passage to the border, Leutert noted.
Still, it wasn’t until this year that the caravans received widespread attention.
“There have been these caravans through the years, but they become prominent because the president tweets about them,” Selee said.
He predicted that, like the caravan in April, Mexico will respond with measures like granting asylum to some migrants who qualify while deporting others who don’t, perhaps not eliminating the caravan entirely but significantly reducing its size before it reaches the U.S. border.
Despite the facts, Trump is going with his gut. He thinks this election is about securing his base. From the Washington Post 202 column:
“Trump believes strongly in his gut that espousing hardline positions related to undocumented immigrants will galvanize his core supporters to turn out for GOP candidates when his name won’t be on the ballot. At a rally in Montana last night, Trump referred to immigration as “our issue.”
But “our issue” has been a disaster for Trump. Record numbers of migrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. His immigration policy has been a failure. The GOP controlled Congress has done nothing to help him so Trump blames it all on … the Democrats.
The Los Angeles Times calls Trump’s immigration policies “a stain on the nation.”
“When it comes to immigration, there has been such a flood of bad policies and ham-handed enforcement acts since Trump took office that it can be hard to keep it all straight.
“Trump’s immigration policy has been characterized by unnecessary detention and inadequate monitoring that has allowed for abuses at detention centers — including sexual assaults and forced medication of children. The immigration court system is now overwhelmed by a backlog of 733,000 cases.
“In short, it’s been a disaster. And through all of these fiascoes, there have been zero serious efforts in Congress or by the president for comprehensive reform of a system everyone acknowledges is broken.”
Here is a (not comprehensive) list:
- children separated from parents at the border
- the travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries
- eliminate protection for dreamers
- allowing fewer refugees to resettle
Meanwhile, Trump still maintains it can all be fixed with a border wall. From the LA Times:
“At best, Trump’s wall — if Congress is insane enough to approve funding — would be little more than a symbol of his arrogance, and of this country’s determination to seal itself off from the world.”
And most of all, it won’t work. But go ahead, blame the Dems.