Donald Trump has stirred up a hornets’ nest talking about our scandalous open borders, and his surging popularity has sent a wake-up call to the GOP leadership.
I have only one criticism of what Trump has done. By focusing so much attention on Mexico, Trump inadvertently took the spotlight off the real culprit, the United States Congress.
We should be disgusted but not surprised that Mexico is acting to promote Mexico’s interests. Mexico profits by the export of its poor, and Trump is right to say so. But we need to talk less about Mexico City and more about Washington, DC.
The hundreds of thousands of crimes committed by illegal aliens—and yes, thousands of murders– are never reported as such by our news media, so the numbers are shocking when finally revealed. But as Stalin famously said, one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.
Trump succeeded in putting a human face on those crime statistics, and Americans are angry. It’s suddenly news that Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.
When Kate Steinle was murdered in San Francisco, allegedly by an illegal alien from Mexico who was deported five times and came back again and again, the new storyline became, enough is enough! The human consequences of open borders and sanctuary city policies are too plain and too ugly to be ignored.
- There have been 122 murders committed by the 36,000 illegal aliens released from custody by Obama appointees since 2009.
- There are 347,000 criminal aliens loose in our communities because Obama had them in custody but would not deport them.
- There are over 850,000 fugitive warrants for illegal aliens who have not shown up for immigration hearings and are subject to deportation—but it caught, Obama’s immigration policies will give them a pass.
- In 2014, over half the illegals apprehended on the southwest border were non-Mexicans, and over 7,000 of them were from countries on the State Department’s official list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Sadly, no one is surprised by Obama’s response to the San Francisco murder. The propaganda line from Obama and the Democrat Party is that such crimes happen only because Republicans have blocked comprehensive immigration reform. The only surprise is that this time, no one is buying it.
Obama did not send his Attorney General or Joe Biden or even his chauffeur to Kate Steinle’s funeral. The funeral wasn’t in Ferguson or Charleston, and Obama couldn’t blame the crime on “racism in our DNA.” There are no words to answer such sickening, cowardly hypocrisy.
But the real story of the week is the Republican establishment’s response to Donald Trump’s criticism of the pandemic of crimes traceable to open borders and sanctuary city policies. Trump’s surging popularity has caused a collective nervous breakdown in the Republican establishment.
Jeb Bush “took it personally,” and Marco Rubio, Chris Christie and John Boehner wished Trump would shut up. It is REALLY frightening to them when large majorities of middle class Americans agree with Donald Trump. What are “responsible Republicans” to do?! Quick: organize a focus group.
What has happened is this. The brutal murder of a beautiful young woman in a San Francisco park put a human face on illegal alien crime at the same moment a prominent national figure is calling for a national debate on the problem. The Republican establishment does not want that debate, and their first reaction is to shoot the messenger. Their second reaction is to lie.
Trump is not only surviving the vicious smear campaign, he is suddenly number one or number two in all the polls. The entire political establishment is in shock.
The Trump campaign and the crime wave in 300 sanctuary cities from Houston to New York and Sacramento to Tampa have generated the kind of national debate on illegal immigration not seen since the Minutemen went to the border in 2005. But will this momentum and this swirling debate produce any practical results?
Bills are being introduced in Congress to require lengthy mandatory prison terms for illegal re-entry by deported criminal aliens. Border security bills are suddenly popular. Sen. Cotton wants to bar federal funding for sanctuary cities—a proposal I introduced nearly every year from 2003 to 2008.
But who will enforce those bills even if they are passed over an Obama veto? Not Obama. Would Jeb Bush enforce them? His brother shrugged and sent Congress the first amnesty bill of the 21st century. Marco Rubio? Really?
A President Trump might welcome those measures, and maybe Scott Walker or Ted Cruz. Who else? Will Fiorina, Walker or Huckabee pledge to rescind Obama’s executive orders on the afternoon of January 20, 2017?
We can be certain of only one thing. Corrective legislation in 2017 will only be possible if the Republican nominee champions this issue all the way through the 2016 presidential campaign. Retreat from the issue will be fatal, not only for true immigration reform but for the Republican Party ticket as well.
Wake up, Republicans! The public and the electorate are ready — ready to ban sanctuary cities, ready to secure the border, and ready to tackle genuine immigration reform.
Donald Trump has shown that Enforcement First is a winning issue. Is the Republican Party listening?