If the president had a documented inclination towards looking out for the interests of disadvantaged people, that would be one thing that would perhaps make his relentless calls for immigration reform less biting.
That’s just fantasy, however, and the fact remains that Trump’s interest in immigration policy reform does not seemingly extend to an interest in the advancement of human rights in conjunction with that reform.
That, of course, is putting is lightly. This is the guy who wants to put up a wall between us and one of our closest allies, after all, and has claimed at times that he’s going to get our ally — Mexico — to pay for it.
On Saturday, one of his routine video messages went up on his personal Twitter account. This time, his topic was immigration.
He cast his remarks about the need for immigration policy reform in the context of the dangerous MS-13 gang, an entity he often points to in an attempt to scare relevant interests into going along with his policy proposals.
The video message from the president posted this Saturday was captioned with a message reading:
‘My Administration has identified three major priorities for creating a safe, modern and lawful immigration system: fully securing the border, ending chain migration, and canceling the visa lottery. Congress must secure the immigration system and protect Americans.’
Check out the video for yourself below.
My Administration has identified three major priorities for creating a safe, modern and lawful immigration system: fully securing the border, ending chain migration, and canceling the visa lottery. Congress must secure the immigration system and protect Americans. pic.twitter.com/xV1lgfhjBU
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018
It’s worth noting that in the video, President Trump — who, as commander-in-chief, is supposed to be executing the laws of the U.S. — calls current American immigration law “so weak, so sad, so pathetic.” This perspective is what has underlined Trump’s relentless attacks on the American justice system, including the abrupt firing of the FBI Director last year.
It’s striking how he jumps from the dangers of MS-13 to the supposed need for the immigration policy reforms he describes.
As a foundation for the issue, a wall in between the U.S. and Mexico is never going to fully put an end to illegal immigration, no matter how many times Trump wants to act as though he would be constructing the New Jerusalem to successfully get it to go up.
“People enter a lottery to come into our country, what kind of a system is that,” Trump asks in the video he posted, making it seem as though there is little if any examination of prospective immigrants’ background when they’re selected in the lottery.
He’s worked to make it seem that way in the past, but the fact is that there are background checks conducted on immigrants before they come here. The visa lottery doesn’t represent an open door for criminals.
Through all of this, it’s not as though the president has actually taken any concrete steps to reach out to and hear the concerns of those opposed to him and thereby help us move forward. Instead he just sits around reportedly calling nations like Haiti, El Salvador, and some African nations “shithole countries.”
Check out Twitter’s response to the president below.
Featured Image via Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images
