Part 4 of 6
This series is on how to talk-back to Trump’s lies about immigrants. Trump’s platform calls for roundup, arrest, concentration camps and deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants as well as, an end to birthright citizenship, barring undocumented children from schools, and separating migrant children from their parents.
This fourth article focuses on Trump’s lies about immigrants and crime.
“President Biden has welcomed into our country rapists, murderers, even terrorists, and the price that we have paid has been deadly,” said Donald Trump in his Acceptance Speech at the Republian Convention.
That’s a lie. What is true, however, is that Trump knows he can’t win with the truth. He must scare the bejesus out of us to get our votes. Hate speech, particularly against immigrants, has been Trump’s calling card since he descended the escalator in 2016.
Does he have any evidence to back up his accusations? Well yeah, but he makes that up too.
The truth is quite different and widely available:
- It’s a civil misdemeanor to cross the border without authorization the first time, but if you are seeking asylum and win your case, it’s no crime. Unauthorized border crossing is not a violent act. There are many reasons why people cross without authorization starting with:
A. The wait for an appointment takes months of “living” in a tent camp in Mexico where crime is ubiquitous and survival precarious.
B. Most migrants do not meet the very narrow legal standards for asylum but are desperate due to poverty, climate change, gang violence. So, they borrow money and flee to the U.S.
C. If you think labor law is bad, try immigration law. It’s archaic and in many ways has created the problems that we have. Yet Congress has refused to fix it for more than thirty years. Those who say, “Get in line!” don’t know that there is no line for most, and even if you have a close family member who can apply for you, the wait takes decades.
- Actually, anti-immigrant hucksters have been lying about a connection between immigrants and crime for almost two centuries but never succeeded in finding the evidence to prove it. In fact, crime fell during both the Trump and Biden administrations. One study said that if people hope increased immigration enforcement will lower the crime rate, they’re wrong. The two aren’t related. Indeed, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than similar US natives. Trump knows this, but fighting crime is not his goal in demonizing immigrants.
- Are immigrants pouring in through open borders bringing fentanyl or for sex trafficking as Republicans claim? Politifact says, “The U.S. southern border is not open. A combination of hundreds of physical barriers such as fences, surveillance technology, drones and about 20,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents help limit who and what comes into the United States. There is no evidence that prisons are being emptied or that foreign countries are sending prisoners. Fentanyl and the chemicals to make it come in mainly by plane, ship through all ports of entry, not in any major way in the backpack of some 18-year-old from Guatemala, and human trafficking is done by professionals, both citizens and foreigners. Immigrants are its victims not its perpetrators.
German Lopez in the New York Times wrote, why do immigrants not commit as many crimes as Americans? “Consider migrants’ motives. Many risk their lives by crossing dangerous jungles, rivers and deserts through Latin America to reach the U.S. so they can find better jobs that offer higher pay. In many cases, they are fleeing crime and violence back home. If they came here illegally, they have an incentive to avoid trouble with the law so they do not get caught by the authorities and deported.”
So why do Trump and Republicans say immigrants are animals infesting our country? Why has demonizing immigrants become the centerpoint of his message? Federico Finchelstein whose 2021 book A Brief History of Fascist Lies says, “Today, lies are back in power.” History shows us that fascist governments rise to power by “spreading ideological lies. Fascist political power was significantly derived from the cooptation of truth and the widespread promulgation of lies.” Trump’s lies fit into the playbook of a dictator.
“107 percent of those jobs [created under Biden] are taken by illegal aliens.” (Trump). Really? 107 % – how’s that even possible? Go tell the union guys building bridges or the factory workers making batteries for electric
