Create a crisis and then resolve it. We've seen this reality show before.
Trump announced earlier this week that on Sunday, 6/23, ICE would begin raids that would ultimately result in the deportation of 1 million illegal immigrants. And then today, at the last minute, he announced that he was suspending that order so that Congress could have a chance to work out a deal on immigration.
This is just so much more Trumpian ca-ca. Create a crisis and then pretend to solve it.
First of all, deporting that many people is financially and logistically impossible. ICE and CBP are already stretched to the limits - there is no room to detain these people he wants to deport and there is no money allocated to pay for it. Trump apparently thinks that ICE can just grab these people and throw them out of the country. It doesn't work that way - they have to be detained until they can appear before a judge, even if they already have a final deportation order against them before they can be deported. ICE literally has nowhere to put them, so how could they carry out this order?
Although I know Trump doesn't believe in them, we have these things called laws in this country. Yes, we have laws against undocumented immigrants, but we also have laws about how to deal with them. Trump doesn't get to choose which ones we follow.
Second, these are families we're talking about, not violent criminals. For the most part, these are people who have been part of a community for years, have been paying taxes (even though they won't see the benefits), have raised a family of children who were born here and are American citizens by law. And now we rip those families apart? If we deport the parents, do we deport their children as well - children who are American citizens under the Constitution - or just leave them to fend for themselves?
Third, signaling what you're going to do before you do it is a really dumb idea - the people you're targeting are not going to be there when your thugs show up. Trump himself accused Obama of doing this - telegraphing what the US would do - and yet here he is doing the exact same thing.
I believe in strong immigration laws, but I also believe that we have to use common sense. If someone has entered the country illegally but has established him or herself as a member of the community - is working and contributing to the community - they deserve a chance. The dangerous ones are the criminals and gang members -that's where the deportation focus should be. But ICE doesn't go after those people because they're harder to find, so they go after the low-hanging fruit - the undocumented who are living here and obeying our laws. Are they here illegally? Yes. Should they be targeted ahead of violent criminals who are here illegally? No, but that's what Trump wants to do because it's easier and it pleases his base.
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