President Trump has unabashedly lambasted the caravan of illegal immigrants who traveled from Honduras through Mexico to the U.S. border, ostensibly to seek asylum in America.
Despite the Democrat inspired laws on Sanctuary Cities and the Border being so bad and one sided, I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country. It is a disgrace. We are the only Country in the World so naive! WALL
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2018
Trump’s bombast is precisely what this country needs to confront the mentality and ideology that celebrates illegal immigration.
A few weeks ago, I gave a talk at the University of California, Berkeley, about immigration policy. I talked about building a wall, limiting chain migration, and distinguishing between legal and illegal immigration. The audience, predominantly liberal, did not agree with much of what I had to say.
Though not surprised, I was dismayed by their enthusiasm for equating illegal immigration with virtue.
When I mentioned that in late February criminal illegal aliens in Oakland eluded federal authorities because Mayor Libby Schaaf warned the public of impending immigration raids, loud cheers broke out in the audience.
When a student asking a question noted that she is the daughter of an illegal immigrant, her classmates enthusiastically applauded.
Alas, illegal is the equivalent of chic at this top American university. Students see no need to hide their disdain for immigration enforcement, believing that those who have violated federal immigration laws are to be celebrated, not arrested or deported.
Of course, such contempt for the rule of law is commonplace outside of the university. Illegal immigrants regularly and openly attend protest rallies across the country, testify before Congress, and speak to national newspapers like the New York Times — all without being arrested or deported for their illegal status.
These individuals call themselves immigration rights activists, but they are people who regularly spit on the dignity and validity of electoral results and legislative compromises of a sovereign, democratic country.
Thankfully, Trump’s rhetoric and actions on the immigration issue have delivered a frontal attack on the prevailing ideology common on liberal campuses like Berkeley and in liberal enclaves around the country.
Before the Trump era, the Left and liberal college campuses were not the only places that coddled illegal immigration. Plenty of conservatives and Republicans fell prey to identity politics or their own vanity and frequently talked about the need to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants in this country.
During his time in office, former President George W. Bush talked about compassion when rallying support for the passage of comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would have legalized some 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. He failed.
In the 2016 presidential campaign, Bush’s brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was proud of having said that many who cross over the U.S.-Mexican border illegally do so out of an “act of love.” He did not fare well in the GOP primaries.
By contrast, conservatives who advocate better border security, legal immigration reforms, and a rejection of amnesty for illegal immigrants almost always face accusations of xenophobia and racism.
A tectonic shift occurred when Trump ran for president. While he is regularly labeled a racist and a xenophobe, he took away the taboo, at least on one side of the political aisle, to talk about keeping out or detaining illegal immigrants, even if they have committed no other crime. All of a sudden, putting the interests of Americans before non-Americans was a rallying cry, not political insanity or opinions that educated people should keep to themselves.
Certainly, there are others who are more articulate, more thoughtful, and more conservative than Trump. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is the perfect example.
When the White House earlier this year proposed a path to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, or illegal immigrants who came to the United States at a young age, many of Trump’s supporters saw it as an act of betrayal. After all, Trump the candidate had promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would not offer amnesty to illegal immigrants if he became president.
It was left up to Cruz to spell out that reminder on “Fox & Friends,” Trump’s favorite morning television show: “We should not be granting citizenship to people here illegally.”
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that former President Barack Obama put into place has thus far granted legal status to only 700,000 Dreamers who have signed up. Trump was proposing amnesty for 1.8 million Dreamers, including those who have not registered under DACA.
“DACA was just a work permit, there was no citizenship whatsoever,” Cruz reminded his “Fox & Friends” hosts. “It is a profound mistake for Republicans to be granting amnesty and a path to citizenship to millions of people here illegally, and it is not being faithful to the promises we made to the voters.”
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters during the campaign because of his immigration stance, now refers to the president as a “shallow, lazy ignoramus” who has failed to keep his promises. On a regular basis, she tweets that Trump has built zero miles of the border wall.
Cruz, Coulter, and other critics who voted for Trump are right, of course. Zero miles of the border wall have been built. The man in the White House has offered amnesty to more than twice as many people as the pro-amnesty Obama has.
Yet despite all that, it is difficult to imagine anyone other than Trump changing the nature and paradigm of the nation’s immigration debate the way Trump has. Many politicians offer solutions and rhetoric that tinker at the edges. Trump is the only one who has unabashedly called for building the wall, a reform of legal immigration, and other tough border security measures.
In the end, the mentality and ideology that celebrates illegality is powerful and insidious. That is why it prevails on campuses like Berkeley, as well as on CNN, MSNBC, and numerous offices in the halls of Congress. To confront and defeat that mentality, something outlandish, something just as powerful is required.
For now, Trumpian tweets, boasts, and promises appear to be the most effective vehicle.
Ying Ma (@GZtoGhetto) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is the former deputy director of the Committee for American Sovereignty, a pro-Trump super PAC, and the former deputy policy director of the Ben Carson presidential campaign. She is the author of Chinese Girl in the Ghetto.
