Xenophobia is as old as the nation itself. From the Alien and Sedition Acts to the Yellow Peril to the creation of the Ku Klux Klan, we have a long history of holding immigrants responsible for the nation’s ills. But as a 52 year old Gen Xer, I can think of no one in modern history who has been more vicious in attacking immigrants than Donald Trump. His whole campaign for higher office rests on a shaky platform of white grievance, and he has to feed his fanbase scapegoats for the supposed second class life they live. I don’t have to list his past disgusting statements here, you have all heard them ad nauseam.
But let’s look at what he is saying now. It’s just as gross and ignorant, but the level of vitriol is turned down a bit (not by much).
Crooked Joe Biden is running a non-stop conveyor belt importing illegal aliens from all over the world into our country and the Biden Department of Homeland Security is abusing its so-called parole authority to give them more governmental benefits than many law-abiding citizens, including our Vets. Our Vets are being taken advantage of. Our citizens are being taken advantage of. It’s very unfair. And it’s not going to stand.
It doesn’t matter who occupies the White House- hundreds of thousands of immigrants come to the country from all over the world every year. And the rate at which they come doesn’t vary by president all that much. Immigration remained steady under the first Trump administration, until he decided to blame immigrants for the COVID-19 crisis instead of his own massive bumbling of the pandemic. It is true that the numbers of immigrants are increasing now, and most attribute the uptick to a bottleneck due to the pandemic. Of course, the numbers of immigrants arriving without authorization are wildly exaggerated by opportunistic Republicans, and fail to cite just how many people we do turn away. The Biden administration has been clearing the path for more legal immigration. Why is that happening? Studies of the census are showing that we may have a population shrinkage if we do not allow more immigration. We are checking out more and checking in less. That could have effects on tax bases and the amount of workers and professionals we need.
Parole authority appears to be reducing the number of illegal entries significantly. It also seems to be reducing the number of encounters and is preventing people from making an arduous trip only to be turned away. Should the United States decide on mass deportations and refusal of refugees like Republicans support, Mexico is likely to retaliate and stop helping us manage entries from its southern neighbors.
Under this horrendous abuse of power, millions of illegals will be eligible for billions and billions of dollars in welfare benefits courtesy of you the American taxpayer. So not only is Crooked Joe surrendering your borders and your sovereignty, he is stealing your hard-earned money to redistribute it to people who have no business being in our country. They should be in their country. This is not sustainable by anybody, certainly not sustainable by us.
The old saw about immigrants sucking up bennies is utterly false. It just won’t go away no matter how much the truth is told- which is that immigrants contribute a great deal of taxes to programs they haven’t got access to. Interestingly, legal immigrants use benefits at a lower rate than the natural citizenry.
And then if they have children, not only do the children get automatic citizenship, but they unlock a trove of additional government benefits flowing to illegal immigrant households. In the meantime, our Vets suffer and our citizens suffer. On Day One of my new Administration, we will shut down this travesty and defend the wealth of hardworking Middle-Class families.
Bullshit. And as a vet, I’m fucking disgusted that he is using me and my fellow veterans as a cudgel against immigrant families.
The bottom line is that Trump is telling massive packs of lies about immigrants to gin up race-based fears. This type of cheap populist trash will work well in a country whose present citizenry is already feeling fucked by a broken system. It keeps us from holding politicians and the deep-pocketed corporations who fund them responsible. Something is definitely wrong in America these days-and ugly demagoguery may triumph over the truth yet again. And as we shall see while we go through Agenda 47, the seeds of neo-fascism are being well-watered. We’ve flirted with it before, but I worry we’re about to normalize hate, anger and fear to such a pronounced degree that this country could become a very dark place for the vulnerable.
The Illogical Seminary 