The Trump administration has defined itself by its attempts to reform the nation’s immigration system to make it more in line with the president’s wishes. To that end, the president has sought to ban Muslims from entering the country, to put a wall up between the U.S. and Mexico, and to have undocumented immigrants to the United States deported without going through due process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoCeYBJ7Ez0
During the Monday White House press conference, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attempted to defend Trump seeking to have undocumented immigrants removed without allowing them to present their case before a judge.
She said:
‘Virtually all Americans agree that it makes no sense that an illegal alien sets one foot on American soil and then they would go through a three to five year judicial process to be removed from the country. Thousands of illegal aliens are removed every month without seeing an immigration judge as a result of procedures and current law including voluntary removal and expedited removal. Just because you don’t see a judge doesn’t mean you aren’t receiving due process. The president is focused on securing our borders and reforming our immigration system to prevent the crisis at the border from getting worse.’
First of all, she offered no immediate justification for her claim that “virtually all Americans” support the administration’s position. The numbers to support her claim may be out there, but that would be giving her a benefit of the doubt that through her repeated lies and those of her associates she has most certainly not earned.
Secondly, it’s ironic for her to act as though there is some monumental, national security threatening border crisis when there is not really any such thing, at least not how the Trump administration would have us believe there is. Immigrant populations do not harbor larger than normal portions of criminals, and overall, there aren’t even as many immigrants coming into the U.S. without documentation as there were in years past.
The heightened national attention being paid to the border and any sense that there is a “crisis” unfolding there is thanks to Trump himself and moves like his recently concluded separation of families who cross the border without documentation. That was technically legal, yes, but it was not mandated. Instead, it was a decision of the Trump administration to impose the most draconian policy possible — which is exactly what they seem to be gearing up for now thanks to Sanders’ contention that having immigrants removed without them seeing a judge is technically legal.
She went on in her remarks to reporters on Monday to indicate a belief that responsibility for the “immigration crisis” rests with Democrats.
She said:
‘We’d like to have secure borders. The Democrats are the ones that want open borders.’
It’s a contention that Trump himself has made in the past, but it’s still not true. Democrats do not want wide open borders that require some tough response from Trump; they just want immigration policies in place that respect human beings. The responsibility for the harsh immigration policies sought by the Trump administration rests with the administration and no one else.
Watch Sanders’ Monday remarks to reporters in full below.
Featured image screengrab via YouTube
