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BY NOW WE all know that Donald Trump wants to deport 3 million “illegal immigrants” and build a big wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent more Latin Americans from getting inside the United States.
Recently, Trump elaborated on those plans. He downplayed his campaign declarations to deport all 11 million unauthorised immigrants and now says he will deport 2-3 million, targeting “drug dealers” and “gang members”. Also, he said that sections of his proposed wall might be a fence.
Those plans are a serious attack on immigrants, many of them poor. The media has rightly exposed Trump’s scheme throughout the campaign and since the election.
Obama deported more people than any other president in US history
However, the point that is often missing is that Trump’s strategy has already been implemented by President Obama, and by Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Indeed, Obama has been the “deporter-in-chief”: he has deported more than 2.7 million unauthorised immigrants, mostly to Mexico and Central America. This is more than any other president in the history of the United States.
If Trump acts on his promises, this will clog the judicial apparatus that will need to process several additional millions of cases. It would necessitate a huge expansion in the number of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement personnel. In other words, human resources would be directed in the wrong direction.
But again, there is continuity with Obama. A significant number of his deportations involved people who had committed only minor infractions, like traffic violations, or had no criminal record at all. For example, in 2015 alone, Obama deported 146,132 Mexicans, 33,249 Guatemalans, 21, 920 Salvadorans and 20,309 Hondurans.
Great Wall of Trump?
Trump declared he would build a 30-foot tall wall along the 3,000 kilometer border with Mexico. He said he would force Mexico to pay for the $10 billion barrier and that he would create a big “deportation force” while banning Muslims from entering the country (he’s changed the details of his positions every now and then – Trump is not known for consistency).
However, the border security apparatus has been a bipartisan consensus since the 1990s. Since that time, a complex of walls, guards and detection systems has been put in place to police the border. The number of border patrol agents rose from 4,000 to over 21,000 and the budget for border and immigration enforcement zoomed from $1.5 to $19.5 billion, a 12-fold increase.
In particular, the wall already exists. In 1994, the US Army Corps of Engineers began erecting a wall, the first time a true effort to build a barrier was undertaken. The reason at that time was the anticipated flood of migrants from Mexico in the wake of NAFTA’s passage (the free trade agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada).
As the Mexican economy suffered significant shocks because of that agreement, peasants and employees who lost their jobs began crossing the border to the United States. Then President Bill Clinton said, “This administration has taken a strong stand to stiffen the protection of our borders… We are increasing our border controls by fifty per cent.” Since then, border protection expanded exponentially, under Clinton, Bush and Obama.
The result? More than 6 million migrants have died while attempting to cross the US-Mexico border since 2000.
The wall construction started under Bill Clinton, but most of the existing 1,100 kilometers of fencing along the border was built after the Secure Fence Act of 2006 was passed. At the time, Hillary Clinton (as a Senator) voted in favor of that bill (along with 26 other Democrats). At a campaign event in 2015, she declared: “I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to built a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in”, and “ I do think you have to control your border.”
The US establishment doesn’t like a wild card
In summary, we have a situation in which the outrageous claims of Donald Trump on deportations and a wall have been regularly highlighted by the media. However, there has been a near total silence about the fact that Trump is simply continuing policies pursued by Democrats, ie Obama and the Clintons.
Why is that? The US establishment is largely opposed to Trump and favoured Hillary during the presidential campaign. It’s not that the establishment disagrees with deporting poor immigrants or building a wall. It’s just that Trump is somewhat of a wild card, because he said he would tear up free trade agreements, distance the United States from NATO, etc.
Hillary, on the other hand, promised to be a more standard establishment figure, whose policies would be more aligned with mainstream thinking among elites and decision makers. Therefore the coverage was and remains biased.
Julien Mercille is a professor at University College Dublin. Twitter: @JulienMercille.
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I suppose we are just going to ignore the fact that Hillary said in her emails that she wants open borders completely
Clinton is overdue some jail time.
@Cen Sored: Most intelligent and normal people want open borders, only cave-dwelling freaks want to cower and hide in the past.
JW… Get over it…. https://youtu.be/BXpi3F0E5ro
@Joey Westland: Open borders or welfare state. Choose one, there can’t be both.
Ah Joey, I hit a nerve I see, you regressive clowns are some fruitcakes.. Like I said, get over it you gobs#ite.
@Beachmaster: He’s a troll. Or else our usual friend ‘from Bradford’.
@Marlowemallow: you have spammed numerous articles and I’ve reported one of your racist comments on another article. You are flooding every article with your racist bile, over 10 comments on one article in 20 minutes. All the hallmarks of a bone fide Grade A Master Troll.
@Crimson ???
Hi (Joey) Liam/Petr/Tariq/Diarmuid/Dick Cheney… What are you today? Atheist, Muslim…..?
@Crimson: Wow, just wow!
He was a Democrat first.
Trump backtracking again, also, embroiled in rape controversy, one of many http://time.com/4572925/megyn-kelly-donald-trump-ivana-rape-claim/
Joey, I applaud your efforts in driving back the proto fascists.
“Hillary, on the other hand, promised to be a more standard establishment figure, whose policies would be more aligned with mainstream thinking among elites and decision makers. ”
I keep hearing about working class Americans supposedly having to depend on Welfare to supplement their downgraded Full-Time to Part-Time hours but these feckin whingers are behind the times. Gender neutral bathrooms and safe spaces are much higher up on the agenda for progressive thinkers.
Will somebody think about the transsexuals who aren’t allowed to decide where they can take a shit. This is an appalling situation. Can we not just be inclusive and have one big cubicle where everybody shits into a giant toilet bowl. Trump is not going to let this happen because he’s a racist, xenophobe who just doesn’t get it :(
@Cen Sored: She also said she had a public and private opinion on things in her E-mails. Seen as she is right wing authoritarian, like Obama, and like Trump, its safe to assume that her beliefs align broadly with theirs and just differ on implementation.
Finally someone on here is pointing out the obvious.
But this is more nonsense:
“Those plans are a serious attack on immigrants, many of them poor.”
The current plan is: “now says he will deport 2-3 million, targeting “drug dealers” and “gang members”.”
‘Criminals’ is what he said. Criminals may also be poor immigrants but the criminality bit outweighs the rest.
And being deported from a country in which you are living illegally is not an ‘attack’. It’s called having a border – there’s really no point in having one if you don’t enforce any immigration policy. If you didn’t have a right to be in a country, then no one is taking away any of your rights by removing you from it.
What would be far more humane, however, would be to simply enforce existing immigration laws on employers of illegal immigrant cheap labour. Fine them until it becomes uneconomic. Then their employees will either make their own way home or find a legal route to residence. And the legally resident American working class, of all colours, might just have a shot at decent pay and conditions again.
Bill Clinton started the wall? Liberals won’t like that fact.
The thing is though….when Democrats build walls and deport millions of people it’s OK.
Actually it’s all done in a spirit of humanitarianism. Coz Democrats are great people.
We all know that.
Whole article is a pile of made up numbers.
“More than 6 million migrants have died while attempting to cross the US-Mexico border since 2000.”
The number is closer to 6000, but hey lets bump up the numbers by a factor of 1000 to make it sound worse.
thejournal, please at least read the freaking thing before posting it.
@Frederick Burden: American definition of liberal is someone slightly less more authoritative than hitler. There has never been an American president that qualifies as liberal. Not even close. Furthermore they have all been Right wing. Some presidents have been more liberal leaning than others, but that doesnt make them liberal, no other country on the planet would call Obama or Hillary Liberal, or left wing.
Obama was shipping people around the world to be tortured, and chucking them out in huge numbers. And now that someone they dont like has them powers, they scream, well they should have been screaming 8 years ago, 12 years ago, 20 years ago etc and laws would have come in place to stop it all.
I mean liberals in america have even tried to defend the nsa (they dont snoop on americans) and now they want trump to leave non americans alone??? makes no sense.
@Fen:
“American definition of liberal is someone slightly less more authoritative than hitler.”
Jaysus…rub one out and go to sleep ffs.
Lads, if I found a news site that I thought was “pushing their agenda” on me, or that I disagreed with almost everything it published, I’d probably stop reading it. I don’t comment on articles from The Sun all day, pointing out my problems with every single article. There are other news sources, just saying.
@Gerry with a J: All media have an agenda and I disagree with all of their agendas pretty much so here’s as good a spot as any. Chomsky? Manufacturing Consent?
You’re assuming that people really get their news here. I don’t. I get it from all kinds of other places. But the journal gives you the short version which is useful in its own way.
Anyway, the real news and interesting stuff pops up in the comments section and the journal has a relatively liberal comments policy – compared to other Irish online media.
“More than 6 million migrants have died while attempting to cross the US-Mexico border since 2000.”
WTF? You need a reputable source before you throw those figures around, Mercille.
“more than 2.7 million unauthorised immigrants” Illegal works just as well but of course you must choose your words carefully you funking hack.
“For example, in 2015 alone, Obama deported 146,132 Mexicans, 33,249 Guatemalans, 21, 920 Salvadorans and 20,309 Hondurans.”
This is NOT an example of what you have stated prior.
@Charlie Fogarty: Give the lad a break as he’s only out by 5,994,000,
Donald Trump, just like his supporters, absolutely clueless and has to rob every single one of Obama’s policy idea, what a loser.
He isn’t even President yet. Learn to read media outlets other than mainstream lying rubbish
@John Reese: Oooooooooooohhh Mainstream Media Conspiracy!!!! Everybody gets their news online now you fool, take off the tinfoil hat.
It depends where you look matey. I read multiple sources and base my opinion then. It’s quiet easy when you are informed. People are obsessed with celebs these days and not what’s really happening .
@Joey Westland: Well said! So refreshing to wake up this morning to your factual posts!
Six million migrants have died trying to cross the border since 2000? That’s more than 1000 per day?…
All a wall will do is make illegal drugs more expensive, giving gangs more money and power. Well done!
@JFN: The Hungarian wall hasn’t had that effect.
@Marlowemallow: Hungarian wall is to stop refugees, Trump’s wall is to stop crime. There’s nowhere near as much drugs flowing into Hungary as there is from Mexico to the US. All it will do is make crime more profitable. They’re not doing anything about the true cause of the problem, the US’ demand for drugs.
@JFN: MM is incapable of making the distinction, it’s not in the Alt-Right Troll Handbook.
@JFN: No there’s more than one intended purpose for the Mexico wall. Drugs trade is one but illegal immigration is another. What do you think they should do about the US demand for drugs?
@Marlowemallow: This will be a consequence of the wall. Would you rather less illegal immigration, but the criminal gangs who do operate cross-border to be stronger? Stupid trade off.
@Marlowemallow: And Trump has already stated that he is mainly concerned with criminals who have entered the US illegally. According to what he told 60 Minutes in his first interview since the election, the overwhelming majority of unauthorized immigrants in the US have nothing to fear from his administration.
Joey, If you could just use the one password for everything you could keep posting as Tariq the Islamo monkey. Where’s your dignity man
6 million have died trying to cross into USA – either that’s a typo or a genocide???
If Prof Mercille is misquoting the International Organisation for Migration report “Fatal Journeys Tracking Lives Lost during Migration” then the official number of deaths while crossing the US-Mexico border is over 6,029 on the US side of the border,98-2013 mostly due to exposure / drowning. Close to 500 recorded deaths per year.
Between 47,000 to 70,000 migrants, passing through Mexico are estimated as dying within Mexico over 6 years according to the same report page 69. ͞”Mexico is a cemetery for Central Americans”, mostly at the hands of organised criminals.
Did anyone watch Jonathon Sugarman’s revelations in the EU parliament 2 days ago?. Wow
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