News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Dec. 30, 2015: If I had a penny for every time I heard the twaddle that the US border needs to first be fully secured before we can begin to address immigration reform within the United States, I’d be rich!
It’s the favorite lie the GOP’s right wing band of politicians use to blind many of their base, tainted by a level of ignorance that leads to their bigotry meter skyrocketing every time the word “immigration” or “immigrants” are used.
Something inside – perhaps a fear of the further darkening of America and the loss of power – allows them to look beyond facts to the lies. It is why the insanity that is Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign train continues to ride high despite the fact that the GOP under Trump will never win a general election.
But the lies continue to abound – on Mexicans, on immigrants, on Muslims! The false message that the GOP and its bunch of mad men continue to spread to their base is that immigrants are crawling over the US borders daily and the Obama administration is doing nothing to stop them.
Sadly, many lap up these lies, choosing to agree with neurotic statements and comments aimed to create fear and division instead of getting the facts.
But numbers don’t lie, and if the numbers from the latest U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions report are any indication, then “illegal border crossings are at their lowest level in more than 40 years.”
This is worth repeating – …. in more than 40 years; four decades, four and O!”
The Department of Homeland Security data released late last week show that in Fiscal Year 2015, the total number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions was approximately 337,117, a decrease of 30 percent from Fiscal Year 2014.
Further, the deportation of criminal immigrants continued apace with 139,368 or 59 percent of the 235,413 immigrants deported being those who were previously convicted of a crime. Of the criminal immigrants deported, 1,040 were classified as suspected or confirmed gang members.
These are the facts!
And here is another fact! Contrary to Trump’s misinformation, it is immigrants from Central America not Mexico who are being captured trying to enter the US illegally at the southern border. This was recently confirmed by the Pew Hispanic Center which reported that “more Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the U.S. than have migrated here since the end of the Great Recession.”
The only reason why the GOP and its candidates refuse to rationally offer up a solution to immigration reform is because they love to use it to enrage the blue colored base that hang on to their lies instead of getting the facts right.
It is time the GOP starts getting the facts right and quit using lies to blind its own base. Especially since as the Pew Center also tells us that a near-record 14 percent of the country’s population is foreign-born compared with just 5 percent in 1965, and that share is expected to rise to 18 percent by 2065.
Most of all, 51 percent are from Latin America and one-quarter are from Asia.
The Pew Hispanic Center also reports that Hispanics will account for 40 percent of the growth in the electorate over the next two decades. By 2030, 40 million Hispanics will be eligible voters, up from 23.7 million today. If Hispanics’ voter participation and naturalization rates increase to the levels of other groups, the number of Hispanic votes cast could double within two decades. Similarly, the Asian share of the electorate is estimated to more than double by 2040.
In addition, multi-racial Americans account for 6.9 percent of adults, and they are growing at a rate three times as fast as the population as a whole.
That’s a whole lot of immigrant and ethnic voters! These are the facts the GOP candidates and its base should focus on instead of continuing to be blinded by lies and the spinning of hate. Those lies will get them nowhere but down the losers’ lane for years to come! Time to start spinning some truths Trump and company!
