Immigration 101 – Speaking without Knowing

We have a president who self-admittedly does not like to read, eschews expert reports even from within his own staff and shoots from the hip, knowingly choosing words and policies that are consistent with the slogans his base expects. Anyone or anything that disagrees with him is the “enemy,” and he is constantly calling on his Department of Justice to clamp down on those “purveyors of fake news,” and allow him to use defamation laws against those dissenters in ways forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.

Departing Republican Senator, Arizona’s Jeff Flake, exploded against Trump’s efforts to suppress the news media: “[Sen. Flake], who has emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest Republican critics, delivered an impassioned speech from the Senate floor on Wednesday [1/17], comparing Trump’s anti-press rhetoric to that of murderous Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and calling on his colleagues to speak out against the president’s ‘shameful, repulsive statements.’

“Recalling Trump’s first year in office, Flake said: ‘2017 was a year which saw the truth — objective, empirical, evidence-based truth — more battered and abused than at any time in the history of our country, at the hands of the most powerful figure in our government.’” Los Angeles Times, January 18^th. Nothing screams Trump’s ignorance of “what is” like immigration. Let’s start with internal views that the “wall” just might be a very costly mistake, with budget estimates rising from Trump’s own $12 billion dollar original forecast to $33 billion (he wants $18 billion to start), rising all the time. In an era of very sophisticated electronic surveillance, bricks, steel and mortar seem so very old world and easily breached.

NPR.com (January 18^th) explains the internal dissent within the White House itself: “In an interview… with Fox News, [White House Chief of Staff John] Kelly said, ‘there are places where hydrographically, geographically, a wall would not be realistic. There are other parts of the southwest border that are so wild and untamed that there is no traffic that goes through them,’ adding there are other places where the existing fencing ‘would suffice.’… The president, Kelly said, ‘has evolved in the way he has looked at things. Campaign to governing are two different things and this president has been very, very flexible in terms of the realm of what is possible.’”

Donald Trump quickly responded in a typical double-down tweet the same day: “The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it. Parts will be, of necessity, see through and it was never intended to be built in areas where there is natural protection such as mountains, wastelands or tough rivers or water.....” Right… The problem is that the President doesn’t even understand the existing immigration laws he opposes.

Trump’s explanation of how our resident visa application program works bears absolutely no resemblance to how it actually works: “As television cameras were allowed to roll during a lengthy immigration meeting at the White House last week, President Trump groused to lawmakers about how 50,000 people each year get coveted green cards through a visa program he wants to kill.

“Countries ‘put names in a hopper,’ Trump said. Then American officials ‘put their hand in a bowl’ and draw out the ‘worst of the worst.’… One problem: That’s not how it works…. Nor is Trump accurate when he describes a second immigration program, which he calls ‘chain migration’ but which advocates describe as family reunification.

“Yet he wants both killed as a condition for backing a popular third program — the so-called DACA permits for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children… Contrary to Trump’s repeated claims, the visa lottery has no bowl, no hopper. The State Department runs a computerized drawing from entries each year. Countries don’t submit names, individuals do. To diversify the immigrant pool, foreign nationals from countries with low numbers of immigrants to the U.S. are allowed to enter the lottery — hence the name, Diversity Visa Lottery Program.

“Entrants must have a high school education or have worked for two years in a skilled job. Their names are vetted and checked against crime and terrorism databases. Each of the 50,000 lottery winners annually is interviewed at a local U.S. consulate before being allowed to enter the country.

“Trump has repeatedly cited terrorism threats as a reason to end both the visa lottery and the so-called chain migration program, which allows citizens to sponsor close relatives to migrate to the U.S. But his administration has struggled to make a link.

“‘There is simply nothing about either of these two programs that presents any specific risk of terrorism,’ said Stephen H. Legomsky, professor emeritus of immigration law at Washington University School of Law and former chief counsel for immigration services at the Homeland Security Department from 2011 to 2013…. ‘These immigrants are vetted for terrorist possibilities just as thoroughly as all immigrants.’” LA times.

But that’s not what his base wants to hear, so he creates “alternative facts” that absolutely carry a false message… and they become the “truth” to his base, a body of Trumpers that have not materially changed in numbers since the campaign… and, more importantly who comprise a disenchanted right wing force that, through voter manipulation (gerrymandering, voter restrictions, having polling places only in conservative neighborhoods, etc.), can defeat almost any “moderate” red state Republican who speaks of working to achieve bipartisan governance. So polarization is a growing fact of life… and any red state Republican who ventures into the middle is doomed.

I’m Peter Dekom, and sooner or later, the nation will become completely ungovernable unless and until (i) free press is restored and (ii) polarization gives way to a real “America First” initiative that embrace bipartisanship.