The whole issue of immigration and this absurd wall is grounded in horrible ideological ignorance.
Immigration: Critics in the immigrant-rights community called Obama the "deporter in chief," even as enforcement-first advocates accused Obama of being soft on illegal immigrants. Both based their ideological criticisms on either liberal dreams or political ignorance. The enforcement priorities and policies, which evolved over the years, represented a significant departure from those of the Bush and Clinton administrations. The Obama-era policies represented the culmination of a gradual but consistent effort to practically narrow its enforcement focus to two key groups: The deportation of criminals and recent unauthorized border crossers. The most recent enforcement figures released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on December 30, 2017 offer the latest evidence of these trends. Eighty-five percent of all removals and returns during fiscal year (FY) 2016 were of non-citizens who had recently crossed the U.S. border unlawfully. Of the remainder, who were removed from the U.S. interior, more than 90 percent had been convicted of what DHS defines as serious crimes. Obama wasn't called the "
Deporter in Chief" for nothing.
Wall: This has been so pathetically politicized over the years that supporters of it can't even argue its legitimacy. It is not about terrorism, because terrorism in America flies in on airplanes or is homegrown. It is not about losing jobs, because no white man is lining up to pick crops; and no doctor's job is at stake. It is not about crime because there is no empirical evidence that immigration increases crime in the United States. In fact, a majority of studies in the U.S. have found lower crime rates among immigrants than among non-immigrants, and that higher concentrations of immigrants are associated with
lower crime rates. But because it has been so politicized as defining the epitome of who is strong and who is weak against illegal immigration, it is really only a matter of wasteful exploitation. Instead of Republicans seeking to continue the practical trend that started with Clinton, developed under Bush, and further developed and pushed forward by Obama, which is to favor exponentially more advanced technology and a broader focus on comprehensive immigration reform, we play idiotic games with a physical barrier to "secure" the southern border like brainless assholes.
