TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION PLAN HAS GOTTEN EVEN WORSE



…”Operation Wetback”, deporting Mexicans in 1955

 

We didn’t think Trump’s deportation plan for illegal immigrants could get worse…but it did.

 

It has been reported that for the Republicans to gain the White House, they would need to secure 42% of the Latino vote.  It has also been said that Trump’s on-going ‘anti-Mexican’ rhetoric will keep the Republican Party out of the White House.  But at least for the primaries, after every ridiculous Trump utterance on immigration, his numbers have gone up in the polls.

 

You probably know that Trump’s campaign slogan and his Superpac’s name is “Making America Great Again”.  But some have changed it to: “Trump Is Making America Grate!”  The award winning author, Stephen King has a new slogan for Donald Trump: “If you’re white, you’re all right!,” begins King’s suggested slogan.  He ends it with: “Any other hue, I don’t trust you.”

 

It’s become pretty obvious that Trump is going after the votes of the white, blue color workers that are fed up with the lack of our government in dealing with our illegal immigrants.  However, Trump’s immigration policy is morally reprehensible because it would tear apart families that have for years put down roots in our fertile American soil.

 

There is no question that it was an unenforced and lax immigration policy that allowed the immigration problems to happen. The inability of the bipartisan Congress in Washington to reach consensus on a comprehensive immigration reform has left the problem unresolved. But using Trump’s “massive deportation by force” to eject millions of people from the only nation they know as home would be beyond comprehension and the cost would be prohibitive.

 

Now Trump is offering the Ike Eisenhower “Operation Wetback” plan as a model for his program proposal. 

 

Of course, the Ike plan was from back in the 1950’s when the president ordered a million and a half illegal immigrants out of the country.  When his program moved the immigrants just beyond the border, they kept coming back. He finally had them moved way south, deep into Mexico, and they never came back. 

 

But the Washington Post has reported that, “The rounded-up deportees were dumped into obscure parts of Mexico desert using overcrowded buses and trucks.  After one such round-up and transfer in July of 1955, 88 people died from heat stroke.  Boats carrying the deported were so crammed with people they were reminiscent of an “eighteenth century slave ship.  Some immigrants drowned in trying to escape the ships."

What Trump doesn't tell you is that the US government was also allowing many Mexicans to apply for citizenship.  In addition, after the program was over, the illegals once again started coming back across the border.

 

On the “Morning Joe” show, Mika Brzezinski asked Trump if he would use “a massive deportation force” to achieve his goal of recreating Eisenhower’s 1954 strategy. “You’re going to have a deportation force,” Trump agreed, “and you’re going to do it humanely.”  But there was nothing humane about the Eisenhower policy.  In addition, Trump hasn't stated what he thinks his program's cost would be.

 

The first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment conveys US citizenship on all persons “born … in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”  The children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States are Americans. Case closed.  But Trump says they should also go back with their undocumented parents.   My personal opinion is that any candidate for US president who would propose stripping these children of their citizenship and deporting them should not be considered for inhabiting the Oval Office. And no political party should consider nominating such an individual for running for that office.

 

This nation is a nation of immigrants, and it is the government’s fault that the borders were allowed to remain less than secure.  Therefore, the answerer should be to secure the border and have a comprehensive immigration plan to bring these people out of the shadows and for making them both legal and into tax payers.  Even if they weren't given a path to US citizenship, they could be fined and issued legal work permits.

 

I have to admit that for a nation of immigrants, Donald Trump’s immigration policy is morally reprehensible, legally indefensible and totally un-American.

 

In the 2012 election, Mitt Romney only secured 27% of the Latino vote.  Based on what Trump is calling for, if the GOP doesn’t silence Trump, I don’t think the Republicans will come near 27% of the 2016 Latino vote.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2015