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Sunday, June 24, 2018

Scapegoating the migrants for votes

Trump called for the US to abandon its judicial system and summarily deport people who enter the country.

“When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came,” Trump said in a tweet, while being driven to his golf course in Virginia.

The statement amounted to a proposal for the suspension of law and in fact an attack on the rule of law. Trump continued to use the language of the far-right to describe immigrants, declaring in his tweet that the US “cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country”. He warned last week that immigrants could “infest” the US.

 Trump’s erratic actions created the child separation crisis with a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy. Trump falsely said his administration was merely following a law Democrats in Congress needed to help to change. After saying he could not stop the policy by executive order, he then stopped the policy with an executive order, confirming that he had been lying. But Trump has continued to demand action from Congress. When Congress promptly produced such plans, Trump dismissed them and instructed Republicans to stop negotiating. At a Republican party gathering in Las Vegas, where he continued to associate Hispanic immigrants in general with MS-13, a criminal gang that operates in Mexico and central America.

Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a Republican, urged Trump to stop falsely accusing Democrats of being unwilling to agree to a comprehensive immigration law unless it effectively opened the border.
“They are on record supporting significant border control,” Flake said on ABC’s This Week. “So when the president says that, and calls them ‘clowns’ and ‘losers’, how does he expect Democrats to sit down and work with Republicans on these issues?”
Bob Corker, senator for Tennessee, also called for an end to the demonisation of immigrants. 
“We’ve got to realise these people are wanting to live in a place like we live,” Corker said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “We’re the most fortunate people on earth to live in this country. That’s why people are drawn to us.”
According to US officials, 310,531 people were apprehended entering the US illegally last year, compared with more than 1.6m in 2000.
“He uses it as a issue in order to energise his political base,” Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said on ABC.
Trump confirmed in a speech on Saturday that he believes his hardline stance on immigration will be politically beneficial in November’s midterm elections.
“I like the issue for the election,” Trump said.

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