Was Trump flip-flopping when he spoke about illegal immigrants yesterday? The Mainstream Media and the Republican collaborators, eager to destroy the confidence of Trump’s supporter base, seized on one short inconclusive discussion he had with his audience, to scream ‘flip-flop’.
On this website we have been putting Trump’s immigration credentials on the back-burner so now is the time to examine them.
Trump catapulted to the front of the Republican primary race with his assertion that he would build a wall and send all illegal immigrants back home. He particularly focused on the criminality of some illegal immigrants, using tragic contemporary events as examples of the insanity of Obama’s unguarded borders, restricted law enforcement, and official toleration of sanctuary cities.
Trump also – and correctly – pointed out that the amnesty policies of Bush, Rubio and other competitors were really ‘continuing mass immigration’ policies in disguise and a path to citizenship. Very quickly the chants of ‘Build that wall!’ at Trump rallies revealed the depth of feeling of many who for the first time had a champion. Trump was – and still is – a voice for those Americans who feel that where immigration is concerned, ‘enough is enough’. Trump was – and still is – the only political voice that wants to turn back the immigration tide that will surely overwhelm the native American people and their institutions.
On this website we would like to see ALL immigration stopped except for those already registered and waiting and who Obama has kicked to the back of the line. But Trump’s policies on border control and current illegal residents are the best on offer and as conservatives we have to be realistic.
This writer has traveled several sections of the border in Texas, Arizona and California. New Mexico’s border with Mexico is probably little different. It is a long border and in most places through difficult terrain, though in some places a small American town lies across the border from a much larger (and much poorer) Mexican town. Residents of both go back and forth all the time, as they have done for generations. In other places the border runs across some of the most inhospitable desert and mountain country on earth, especially on the Mexican side.
No doubt Trump has also traveled some of this border and is aware of its massive length, the terrain, the places that are populated on both sides, and the close family ties that have always existed between them since America’s annexation of the border States.
We always understood that ‘Trump’s wall’ was a message of determined intention, not to build another Great Wall of China, but to halt and reverse the Obama/Bush open borders policy. Certainly an effective wall could be built in several places, and Trump has real experience of constructing on a big scale. In many other long stretches of hostile country, the border could be made a serious obstacle with barbed wire, modern technology and sufficient patrols and manpower. Troops in Germany and newly-unemployed Federal Government workers from Washington DC can be used to beef up border oversight.
We assumed, and we think Trump supporters also understood, that ‘Build that wall’ was essentially symbolic for Presidential determination to stop illegal immigration by whatever means necessary. Likewise, we have never thought that all illegal immigrants (is it 11 million, 16 or 30 million?) could be physically deported. Nor did we think the American people would tolerate the process of rounding up whole neighborhoods and putting people in trucks or days of travel. Trump has promised that the criminals would be the first to go and he has always put in the proviso that many productive illegal residents of longstanding would be allowed back in after returning home, thus ensuring co-operation.
Any Nationalist who ponders the deportation problem that Trump would face after winning the Presidency, knows that his actions will be limited by realities. What we will have to settle for is a process that will greatly reduce the numbers who remain, halt the inflow and ruthlessly screen all who enter America, especially from Muslim countries.
Ending the provision of food stamps, welfare payments and easy access to free medical care and employment, combined with a stated official disapproval of illegal entry, will result in millions returning to home countries voluntarily. Reversing the criminal negligence of borders of the last twenty years will be a monumental task for President Trump, full of unforeseen problems and unforeseen solutions, but he is a problem-solver with resolve.
We see Trump’s latest remarks, not as flip-flopping but as getting more specific, and we think his supporters understand that.
Right on target, George.