Just When I Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse...
This last week, I decided to sleep on my day off...like, almost all day. So I was late getting out to run errands, and when I stopped to buy a newspaper--a rare event these days--I glanced at the headlines and screeched to a halt in mid-step. Because apparently, I had awakened in Russia.
The headline that got my attention was from the "illegals roundup" that happened last weekend, brought to us by Donald Trump and his merry band of ICE-men. The idea was to swoop in, arrest all those evil illegals, and deport them. But in this story, there was an interesting wrinkle: the man in question, who was in his car with his girlfriend and their two kids, was approached by an ICE agent who commanded him to get out of the car. The girlfriend says that the agent never said the name of the man they were looking for, nor did he show a warrant. So the family stayed in their vehicle and kept the windows closed. The ICE agent then broke the car window and dragged the man from the car, while his son screamed for the agent not to take his daddy.
Fortunately, the girlfriend recorded the whole incident on her phone, and it's all over Facebook as I write. Hurrah for her. It's about time we Harold Beale this ugly mess.
This whole business of "rounding up the bad guys" smells like a mid-summer mass fish kill anyway. The media have been reporting on it for weeks, which my paper said was problematic for an operation that relied on "secrecy and surprise." Wow. Can you say "KGB," kiddies? How about "police state"? Or "unconstitutional"? Because, kiddies, breaking a car window and dragging a man out of it without showing a warrant is called "illegal search and seizure," and it's something we're supposed to be protected from by the Fourth Amendment. The fact that the ICE agent did not tell the family who they were looking for is also a red flag--what if they had just been profiling anybody who looked Hispanic?
The ICE maintained that the man was an "immigration fugitive" with "prior misdemeanors." But his biggest crime seems to have been that when he was ordered to leave the country, he kept sneaking back in. My bet is that he didn't want to abandon his family here in the States. And he wasn't a shiftless layabout getting free handouts from the government; he was a chef. Whether that means "high-end fancy cook" or "gourmet burger-flipper" is immaterial--the guy worked to provide for his family. He "took care of business," to quote Chris Rock (who had no love for deadbeat dads). Isn't that the kind of immigrant we want to have living here?
But Donald Trump doesn't see it that way. He wants only people from "good" countries to immigrate to the USA. And if you come from a "shithole country," you can apply to come here, but your request will be shunted to the bottom of the heap. An unskilled laborer will wait decades for even a temporary work visa, even with an employer to sponsor him...and he has to leave voluntarily at the end of his term of work and reapply again!
It gets worse. If you come here illegally, then obey a voluntary deportation order, you can't reapply to enter legally until three years have passed. This assumes you only crashed the party for six months, though--if you stayed illegally for a year, you have to wait ten years. And even with employer sponsorship...well, re-read the last paragraph.
In fact, our immigration system is broken, but not in the way some people are saying. Basically, our borders are closed, but with a few holes (got that phrase from an immigration article on the Cato Institute's web site). Rather than potential new Americans being considered eligible until proven otherwise by the government, they are automatically rejected unless they can prove their worth. A poor person from, say, Guatemala, whose only skill is as a farmer and who knows little or no English (and may, in fact, be completely illiterate) just wouldn't be considered a good fit under current immigration law. Never mind that he is quite intelligent and would flourish if he had the chance to learn to read and write, first Spanish, then English. (Where I live, a guy like that would be an asset--we're losing too many family farmers because of age, expenses, or plain lack of interest.) Highly-skilled folks aren't in a much better position. Oh, and remember when we welcomed people who were fleeing oppression? Donald Trump's response is that the present refugee crisis isn't real--it's a gigantic plot by Central America to sneak in gangs and drugs. Yeah, gotta watch those infant/toddler MS-13ers...herd 'em all into detention cages!
How To Get On The Trump Shit List
It's simple. Be a Congressperson of color, and criticize Trump's immigration policies.
Four of those fearless sisters--Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)--did just that. Trump's response? He accused them of being unpatriotic and told them to go back where they came from and fix the messes in their own countries!
At a rally in North Carolina, a chant started up--"Send her back!"--when Trump mentioned Rep. Omar. He just let it go. Later, he flip-flopped, at first saying he tried to stop the chant, then later saying that those NC attendees were patriots, and that Omar and her fellow Reps had said "horrible things" about the USA and some of its people.
Wow. Where to begin...
1) Need A Mirror, Mr. President?
Because the number of horrible things you have said about this country and its people increases with just about every tweet you post. The only thing about this that amazes me is that you are too unaware to realize how ironic this entire situation is.
2) And What About Those Rallies, Anyway?
Aren't you supposed to be fulfilling your duties as President? They're outlined in the Constitution. I bet there's even a cardboard version with brightly-colored pictures and first-grade vocabulary, if eighteenth-century English is too hard for you!
You should not be gallivanting around the country when there's work to be done. And BTW...I'm waiting for one of your "chant shills" to repent and confess. No way are all those slogans erupting spontaneously. Think those paid performers are all completely loyal? Well, you've been fooled enough by this time that we're way past shame on anybody.
3) Send Who Back Where To What???
All those ladies are United States citizens, and only one--Ilhan Omar--has ever been anything else. Omar came here from war-torn Somalia when she was ten, becoming a citizen when she was sseventeen. The other women were born here. And how do you, Mr. Trump, expect the messes in poor countries to be fixed by anybody when thugs and gangs control everything? I suppose it only matters if the thugs and gangs in question allow you to build a golf course or tower, or if they buy arms from us. In other words, if you can "do business" with them.
On Second Thought...
Y'know, I've changed my mind. I'm not in Russia--I'm in freakin' Uganda, with Trump as Idi Amin Dada.
Well, maybe not.
I only know that if we don't all stand up and shout "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" when we meet up with injustices like this...then I'm definitely not in the USA anymore.
P.S. About That Article...
It's really rare that the Cato Institute publishes anything reasonable, but that article on immigration certainly qualifies. If you want to read it, here is the link:
https://www.cato.org/blog/why-legal-immigration-system-broken-short-list-problems
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