Don's Tuesday Column

            THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   7/02/2019

   Can’t live with or without immigrants

What stood out last week (again) were several immigration-related stories. The news media/Democrat propaganda machine never tires of shoving their collective phony narratives down our throats. We, who simply want public policy that reflects reality and a debate based on what’s in America’s best legal interests, are forced to push back.

The impact of the blatant attempts to drive one perspective were described by Bill D’Agostino of Newsbusters.org: “The mainstream media is hiding the facts about our immigration crisis…causing the public to underestimate the problem and to oppose President Trump’s policies.” When the Media Research Center analyzed evening network (ABC, CBS and NBC) coverage of illegal immigration from Jan. 1 through May 15, it found 234 stories on the topic. Only 22, less than 10 percent, “informed viewers about the dramatically increased rate of illegal crossings. Apprehensions at the U.S. border have surpassed 100,000 per month, an 11-year high.

“Indeed, when network journalists talked about numbers, they frequently hid the ball, comparing illegal entry rates not to recent levels, but to the record-high rate way back in 2000. This enabled them to claim, quite misleadingly, that illegal immigration is decreasing.” The current rate is the highest in 11 years.

Also downplayed: current waves of illegal border-crossers have vastly more children with adults (often not even related), and even “unaccompanied” children. Is the obvious lesson so hard to convey? America’s unprotected border and asylum/refugee laws have been used to encourage a self-fulfilling cycle of endless “family units” turning themselves in to the Border Patrol. They know that the shortage of holding space will force authorities to simply release them. Their “promise” to appear? Ignored.

The slanted coverage then creates mistaken perceptions by Americans (Harvard/Harris, ABC/Washington Post polls), who wildly underestimate the volume and numbers of illegal aliens (legal term from our laws) entering across the southern border. A majority thought the rate was less than 100,000 per year, not per month.

The ABC/WaPo poll didn’t even provide data so that respondents could have an informed opinion. 64 percent of their sample opposed President Trump’s emergency declaration to free up money for barrier construction. Harvard/Harris found that “when respondents were told the actual rates of illegal immigration, a majority (52 percent) supported Trump’s declaration. Nearly half (47 percent) wanted to see current asylum restrictions tightened, while only 19 percent wanted them loosened.

That’s how the media/Democrat cabal roll: Provide partial, misleading data on an urgent issue, which creates mistaken opinions in polls—used to manufacture public opinion against Trump—which Democrats cite as justification for opposing Trump’s policy. This provides cover for liberal judges, like the one in California that just ruled against Trump’s wall funding. On and on.

A quote from Communist tyrant Joseph Stalin strangely puts the deaths of a father and daughter, photographed on the bank of the Rio Grande, into perspective. “One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” While heart-tugging and gut-wrenching, those using the photo miss important points in a rush to bash Trump’s policies, his wall-building and the dire circumstances (brought mostly on themselves) of a relatively small portion of the migrants illegally entering.

Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his daughter Valeria (God rest their souls) were not fleeing violence or persecution and were not turned away. Seeking to earn more than he was paid at his Papa Johns job in El Salvador, Ramirez hoped use America’s higher wages to build or buy a house back home. He left the que to attempt a river crossing with his wife and child. Very bad decision.

Rather than a reason for open borders, and against Trump’s efforts to erect hard barriers, such deaths only reinforce the need to have impenetrable walls that send the message: don’t try to cross our border. Policy changes—mandating that those with children and all apprehended illegals will not be released, and that no one can remain at large in America while their claims are evaluated—can greatly reduce the flow of those hoping to flout our laws, disappear into the interior and gain benefits.

How often must it be said: Our asylum/refugee laws do not apply to those seeking financial betterment. Democrats who disagree should propose laws changing that fact. They don’t want to because, truth be told, these illegal immigrants are considered a potential future voting constituency, as several cities have already sought to allow them to vote in local elections. Democrats are on the record admitting that the counting of illegal (and legal) immigrants boosts not only their allocation of Congressional seats but also their share of federal benefits based on population. Trump must put a citizenship question on the census.

Two final salient observations: First, it is shockingly hypocritical for the news outlets to show the photo of the deceased father and daughter. Those same outlets have never allowed us to see the graphic pictures of those maimed and killed by terrorist violence. They quickly scrubbed the video of those on upper floors of the World Trade Center, so desperate to avoid burning to death that they threw themselves to their deaths. Fine, don’t show their broken, bloody bodies but the poignancy of their fall shouldn’t be forgotten.

Secondly, almost as outrageous as Joe Biden claiming that Obama had no scandals, “Slow Joe” jumped on the dead-migrants photo to score cheap political points against Trump. Hold my beer as I dispute you: “20 Times Breitbart Reported on Migrant Deaths During Obama-Biden Years and No One Cared,” by Bob Price is a must-read: “A total of 42 bodies have been found this year in the fields around Falfurrias (TX)…Two more bodies discovered…The remains of another found in Brooks County…Teens left to die without water…Corpses of 3 Found…Remains of 552 Migrants Found over 10 Years…3 Dead, 1 Rescued…The dead bodies of 53 found…Remains of 61 Dead Migrants Recovered.” Here’s a mirror, Joe.