There’s an old adage that counsels us to be careful what we wish for.
Before our mad king’s ascension to a second term, lots of Americans held negative views of immigrants. Political pundits attributed a good deal of Trump’s support to his promise to rid the country of these terrible people, the majority of whom (he asserted) were criminals and rapists.
That’s one promise the Trump administration is trying to keep, unlike its promises to curb inflation and cut out government “waste and fraud.” ICE has sent masked, armed enforcers after those nefarious lawbreakers–well, really, after everyone who “looks” undocumented (basically, engaging in racial profiling, yet another Trump administration unconstitutional practice).
So, how much has the keeping of that promise– the delivery of a result that MAGA folks ardently wished for–increased support for the administration? Strangely enough, it turns out that reality has punctured the always dishonest portrayals of America’s undocumented immigrants.
Gallup polling has charted that unanticipated turnaround:
Just months after President Donald Trump returned to office amid a wave of anti-immigration sentiment, the share of U.S. adults saying immigration is a “good thing” for the country has jumped substantially — including among Republicans, according to new Gallup polling.
About 8 in 10 Americans, 79%, say immigration is “a good thing” for the country today, an increase from 64% a year ago and a high point in the nearly 25-year trend. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say immigration is a bad thing right now, down from 32% last year.
What has caused the shift?
Well, first of all, despite Trump’s dishonest descriptions of an “invasion” of undocumented criminals, it turns out that there really aren’t many criminals out there. Experts have calculated that there may be–at most– only around 78,000 undocumented immigrants with any sort of criminal record, and of that number, only 14,000 have been convicted of violent crimes. Given Stephen Miller’s demand that ICE arrest 3,000 people a day, ICE has turned its attention to farm workers and day laborers.
For example, multiple media sources have confirmed that the great majority of detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz, the immigration detention center (concentration camp) built in the Florida Everglades, do not have criminal records or charges pending against them in the U.S. — despite Donald Trump claiming the facility would hold “the most vicious people on the planet.”
For that matter, in the case of immigrants who do have records, most of those records are for immigration violations, which are technically civil offenses.
Business owners–especially landscape companies, construction companies and restaurant/hotel owners–have lost significant segments of their workforces, as ICE has rounded up workers who may have been undocumented but who were anything but dangerous criminals. Grocers (and their customers) are dealing with increased prices, as farmers have lost numerous undocumented workers who picked their crops.
And as ICE has moved to deport their friends and neighbors, many more Americans have come to recognize the indiscriminate cruelty of these sweeps. It turns out that abstract promises about ridding the country of undocumented criminals is conflicting with the reality of these roundups.
Masked ICE agents have refused to show ID as they continue to engage in a variety of offensive and unconstitutional behaviors, sparking outrage.
Not only have ICE “enforcers” engaged in racial profiling, “immigration enforcement” is increasingly being used as a barely-veiled cover for efforts to chill the exercise of free speech. Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, was detained by ICE, his student visa revoked, and he was threatened with deportation– not for criminal activity, but for involvement in pro-Palestinian protests. His arrest was widely–and accurately– seen as a part of Trump administration efforts to crack down on student activism. Another widely reported example was the arrest of Rümeysa Öztürk, a 30-year-old Tufts University student. She was taken off the street by masked ICE agents near her home. A court subsequently determined that her arrest had been prompted by her co-authorship of an article about the ongoing war in Gaza.
There’s much more.
The bottom line is that there is a difference between fantasy and reality. When political promises are based on “alternate realities,” the effort to fulfill them can become an (unintentional) educational exercise.
It turns out that the American economy is heavily dependant on immigrants, both documented and “illegal.” It turns out that constitutional guarantees for everyone are weakened when an administration decides that some people aren’t entitled to them.
It turns out that immigration enforcement is “more complicated than that,” and that pesky realities are significantly different from the racist fantasies that spawned them.
While Trump made a political career off stoking fears of immigrants, don’t forget the role Elon Musk, an immigrant himself, played in this debacle. He posted daily on social media about how immigrants voted illegally for the Democratic Party. He claimed that the Biden administration was letting illegals into the country in exchange for their votes. I guess being the wealthiest man in the world doesn’t exempt one from ignorance. 😉
How well did that work out for Elon?
I’m still convinced that many of the masked ICE crew come from the Proud Boys and other right-wing militia types. It’s why they are masked: facial recognition software is everywhere. These proud patriots fear being outed. #cowards
Whoever runs for POTUS on the Democratic ticket in 2028 needs to include a deportation list. The person at the top of the list is Stephen Miller, and I’d send him to South Africa with Elon Musk. 🙂
Trump loves nobody.
Our president’s job is to be responsible for every human being.
Imagine if you were a sole breadwinner single parent with a half a dozen contemptuous little strangers in your dwelling that you felt zero attachment to.
I loved being a father, married to a good mother, and raising a loving, planned family, but the situation above strikes me as pure hell.
So, our nation can be divided into two tribes unwilling to compromise or collaborate because of a multi-decennial, generational extremization process for political gain. That’s led to the situation in which group A believes Trump is trustworthy while B believes the extreme opposite.
Which group of normal people do you believe will grow here and which will shrink?
To my way of thinking, supported by actual measurement, the answer is obvious.
Pete, Trump the psychopath loves only himself.
Psychopaths see no consequences of their actions, actions that bring immediate personal satisfaction. The consequences be damned. Blame them on somebody else. We see the confirmation of this analysis every day.
From the department of “Just when you think it can’t get crazier, it gets crazier”: Now the insane monstrosity wants to limit the deal that the Washington Commanders NFL team can make with D.C. to refurbish and play in the old RFK stadium. He wants the team to revert back to the Washington Redskins before he’ll give his blessing – which has absolutely no merit in the project.
So, here we have a deteriorating psychopath with the nuclear launch codes. What can possibly go wrong?
It’s at the point where fewer and fewer believe anything Trump says. Have his unrelenting lies finally undermined and destroyed his credibility with his MAGA base? I guess we can only hope, but the reason he has involved himself in the names of sports teams is pure desperation. Maybe the venous insufficiency is starving his brain of blood or maybe he’s out of fresh ideas to rally his base. It’s important in this moment to remember the unwavering support of Banks, Young and our Indiana congress persons – rats on the sinking ship?
ICE Agents are men who grew up playing space wars with little galactic lasers collected from Cracker Jax boxes. Now they get their flack jackets and surplus M-16’s to play imaginary heroes terrorizing unarmed men, women and children at Home Depot. This isn’t about Making America Great Again. It is about appeasing self aggrandized power of the Worst President in America’s History and his handler, Stephen Miller. The shift in Republican ranks toward immigrants began when they priced John Deere riding mowers to do it themselves. There is no place to mount a shade much less a cup for their ice cold vodka lemonade. Poor Republicans … short on truth or consequences
Speaking as a genealogy nerd myself, what we need to do is persuade our MAGA neighbors and relatives to do their own family trees, and learn that they are immigrants, too.
My gt-gt-grandparents got off the boat from Germany 1 month before Lincoln was elected, swore allegiance to the constitution, and moved to Michigan for the free farm land. But now under the laws of the US, they lost their 18-year old son to the Union draft 6 months later and he served thru the entire Civil War, from Bull Run to Appomattox. Knowing that as my roots here, how can I do anything but be proud to be the son of immigrants?
We need to teach MAGA true believers who they really are, to connect them to their misplaced empathy.
lets see, florida, texas, mmmm, hurricane season..mmmm. lets see whos gonna clean up,the next mess..(ever open a week old frige after powers out?).florida used part of its emergency response money to build alley of aligators. (the working staff should be so happy to be there too) maybe ice could help the clean ups since they are so intuned to making it work.. after all they just got a windfall of money so the rich could enjoy the view.
The reality of this country’s situation is that in order to have a healthy economy we need labor…. lots of labor for agriculture, transportation and warehousing.
The reality is that in order to have a safe and peaceful society we need to be able to get along with each other and the rest of the world.
The reality is that in order to have liberty we each must be allowed our own freedom of thought and expression.
The reality is that in order for us to have a country that thrives on all these things the government must put into place the policies necessary for these things to flourish.
The reality is that at this time in history we are in danger of losing it all.
The only thing that has caused trouble with his “base” is that he hasn’t released the Epstein files. I’m not sure if it’s a case of the prurient interests of his base, or because they know in their tiny little hearts that the files will prove that the Clintons will be outed as being guilty of running a child sex ring. Pizza gate guy will finally get the credit he deserves.
I would hazard a guess that Orange Jesus (OJ) has no clue about who’s being picked up by his agents and Stephen Miller has been given sole control over the immigration problem. Between OJ and Miller the only differences are age, personality, and intelligence. Beliefs and politics are as on the same line top to bottom.
I read in this morning’s newspaper that some of the people who were initially held at Alligator Alcatraz have already been moved. Nobody knows if they’ve been deported or shipped to a different gulag..
daleb;
I’ll start thinking that there is hope when the rats start leaving the sinking ship.
CA Farmworkers several day strike supposed to come relatively soon! They can’t afford longer strike!
When will “we” resist the
Same way through Boycotts, Strikes, speaking out not only where its “our” people??!! Adam Schiff here, Schumer- defending Israel. Few speaking up – Booker, Cantwell Coons posing wit Net.- Israel’s leader…
Nicholas Kristoff ran an article in the Sunday New York Times about ICE grabbing a 34 year resident of his home county in Oregon and how the county (which had voted for Trump 3 times) has raised $150,000 in support of their arrested friend.
ICE is making it personal for so many that it is not surprising that the polls are shifting against the program. I have neighbors who, at first glance, look like immigrants. They are some of the best neighbors that I have. I will defend their right to be here as strongly as I defend my own right to be here.
I am aware of the fact that the despicable and outrageous immigration tactics being employed by trump’s ICE boys is the cruelest piece in the list of unlawful and unconstitutional list of actions by our federal government, but one of the most egregious to me is the unethical, sickening and probably illegal and/or unconstitutional accumulation of wealth by this POTUS. It is being carried out in broad daylight, unabashedly, without any congressional or judicial oversight (as in many other actions, like bombing a sovereign nation and setting tariffs under false pretenses). No other president has even come close to doing it. From his lies at the beginning of his first term, when he put on the show including the dramatic pile of official-looking documents in order to convince us that he was indeed divorcing himself from having anything whatsoever to do with his businesses, to the long, long list of lies since – 30,000 or so as documented by the press – the donald lives on in a true psychopathic, malignant narcissistic, dictatorship which so far has only led to a wealthy POTUS and a dystopic America. God help us all.
Where did that phrase, “Reality bites!” come from? May it bite his derriere, very hard!
A Malignant narcissist encompasses narcissism, anti-social pathology, and a host of other personality disorders. This one is a made for TV monster, who makes Godzilla look like a cute pet.
Working for ICE was just a job where they had to follow rule of law until trump made immigration the prime target of his regime Ice has become militarized and directed to bypass laws by homeland security and a Trump sycophant DOJ. With Maga Congress pouring billions into ICE coffers the human rights offences will definitely get worse. It all needs to be spotlighted, and the blame accurately directed to trump’s scapegoating for power and grift. The human misery they are causing is un-American and unacceptable. Deport defense is a war zone.
I do not think most of these ICE agents are legitimate ICE agents. I think they are a rogue group–Betsy DeVos’s brothers group–probably a few January 6th insurrectionists.
I am surprised someone has not shot them–they are masked, zero identifiers, coming at people w/ a level of aggression that is unwarranted?.. how someone has not shot one is amazing to me; especially since they are picking up American citizens that fit the bill in looks. SMH.. On a positive note, just saw that one of the Heritage Founders have died, Edwin Feulner
I’m feeling the same combination of apprehension and anticipation that I experience when I see a storm bearing down on me. Part of me wants to experience it and part just hopes it doesn’t blow my house away.
The problem goes back to Faux (et al.) and our media bubbles. The right truly believes the lies they’ve been told. And, they’ve been trained to distrust anyone who does not believe in or agree with those lies.
This is why the recent Epstein case is almost… funny. They believed the lies about Trump being a “messiah” who would bring the “storm” to uncover and punish the cabal of elite/democrat child abusers, of which Epstein was a key component. (Note that the best conspiracy theories have kernels of truth, which is why this one is so compelling to maga.) Now that lie is backfiring spectacularly, and a terrified Trump is deflecting like mad.
A couple commentators have suggested, and they may be right, that this is the first time for many of these people that they see Trump as lying. And if that doesn’t make you shake your head in disbelief, nothing will.