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Is Donald Trump wrong about illegal immigrants?

Christopher Curran
Posted 7/15/15

Real estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump, who is running for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, spoke caustic and inflammatory words about illegal …

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Is Donald Trump wrong about illegal immigrants?

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Real estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump, who is running for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, spoke caustic and inflammatory words about illegal immigrants that have ignited a firestorm of criticism. He followed his supposed spurious speech with an 881-word manifesto, which was further accusatory toward the undocumented residents of our country.

As indelicate as those assertions were, his statements speak to a truth that is often overlooked in the discourse of America. Politicians from both parties have treated the illegal immigrant problem as a third rail of an active train. Our elected officials state the benevolent rhetoric of concern without generating any worthwhile plans to rectify the ongoing problems, which are vast and complicated. Conversely, Donald Trump’s words were not benevolent but blunt. More importantly, his statement, for the most part, was accurate. Trump should have raised the subject in a manner more adroit rather than coarsely and callously. Nevertheless, his message is one that needs to be explored and verified.

The United States’ immigration laws have evolved over the generations. However, the difference today is that some officials choose not to enforce the statutes. Sanctuary cities invite the underside of illegal immigrant activity when perspective perpetrators know their undocumented status will not be challenged and therefore they enjoy carte blanche capability to defy our society’s laws. Donald Trump’s heralded umbrage regarding the lack of enforcement of existing law is valid. However, the subject is too important to the future of our country to be a provocative punch line in a political campaign. We need to face the problem now before the nation is eclipsed with the deleterious, dependant and the devious.

In his burgeoning campaign for the Republican nomination for president, “The Donald” has galvanized many on both sides of the immigration issue. Liberals have condemned Trump as insensitive and demeaning, while others who have perceived illegal immigrants as toxic to our country have propelled Trump skyward in political polls. Trump asserted: “the worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican government,” and “the largest suppliers of heroin, cocaine, to the illicit drugs are Mexican cartels that arrange to have Mexican immigrants trying to cross the borders and smuggle in the drugs.” Let us address that statement. According to Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement, on average, 72,000 illegal aliens are arrested yearly on drug charges on American soil.

Trump further stated: “Likewise, tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, inner city schools throughout the nation have seen greater incidents of childhood diseases due to unvaccinated children of illegal immigrants. Also, it has been well documented that so called “freedom trains” from Southern Mexico and Central America have brought in scores of infirm, malnourished, and unvaccinated youths that have reignited incidences of once long gone maladies like whooping cough, measles, and chicken pox. Border patrol camps have been set up to contend with the onslaught of illegal immigrants rather than return those here erroneously southward.

Additionally, Trump spoke the following: “What can be more simply stated? The Mexican government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. There are in cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.” According to federal statistics, currently there are 630,000 convicted illegal felons residing in state and federal prisons at a cost of $1.6 billion annually. Also, according to Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement, 25 percent of the more expensive maximum security federal prison population is comprised of illegal immigrants.

Furthermore, Trump cited the ever-growing cost to the taxpayers. The evidence of the veracity of this assertion is overwhelming. The cost of educating children of illegal persons is $52 billion yearly, and the overall cost to state and local governments in goods and services provided to illegal people is $84 billion annually.

Despite these irrefutable facts, some of his fellow Republican candidates are running for cover on the immigration issue and ratcheting up the same old nebulous rhetoric. Frontrunner and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush stated, “the remarks were far outside the mainstream of Republican thought.” And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Trump’s remarks were “offensive, inaccurate, and divisive.”

On the contrary, in regard to the suggestion that a path to citizenship should be set up on an immediate basis to resolve the problem, other GOP contenders took a harder line. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said “a pathway to citizenship is extreme.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stated, “I introduced an amendment that eliminated a pathway to citizenship.” Also, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker suggested a pathway would only be possible if the illegal person returned to their home country initially: “To be a citizen they need to go back to their country first.”

United States immigration laws have changed in accordance to whatever societal norms existed in a particular era. However, today our society itself is being changed by the lack of enforcement of current law. In 1790, “The Naturalization Act of 1790” allowed new citizens who were “free white persons of good moral character.” In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the United States constitution allowed freed men citizenship. In 1882, new naturalization law banned the acceptance of “lunatics” or “carriers of disease.” Also, in the 1800s, several laws limited Asian naturalization. In 1917, literacy became a requirement for becoming an American. And in 1921, annual quotas were put in place reflective of existing percentages of a particular heritage, as the country was then being overrun with the dependent and unproductive.

In more modern times, the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 abolished the system of national quotas and opened the floodgates for newcomers from across the globe. Yet, these new arrivals had to follow rules and regulations prescribed in the law. Visas, green cards, resident alien reports, and a defined process of aspired citizenship had to be followed, unlike our current situation. In the last 50 years, slowly, insidiously, and incrementally, political expediency surpassed the respect for our laws.

Sanctuary cities like Providence and San Francisco give license to criminal behavior because malevolent illegal immigrants know their status will not be reviewed if they have an encounter with a government authority. Recently, a seven-time convicted felon and five-time deported criminal, Francisco Sanchez, slaughtered a 32-year-old woman, Kathryn Steinle, in a random act of violence. When questioned about why he returned to San Francisco, he stated he knew he would not be confronted in what is a safe city for illegal persons. In 2008, a woman was abducted in a Warwick shopping center parking lot and subsequently raped by Marco Riz, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala.

These incidents are no longer the exception but are fast becoming the rule of undocumented immigrant crime. Knowing they are illegal and that our government will not enforce our laws to remove and return them to their countries, these criminals believe they can act with impunity.

All in all, as GOP Chairman Reince Prebis stated, Donald Trump “hit a nerve” with his words on illegal immigrants. However delivered, Trump’s statement prompted discourse about a subject long side-stepped by our officials. The candidates for president all need to address this pressing issue in a real manner, not just with tired lip service. Whatever his political motivation might have been, Trump’s stated concerns were accurate ones.

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