The chaos that Trump has created at the border was clearly predictable.
I wrote about it in Feb. 2017.
We Can Resist Trump’s Immigration Orders, Democratic Left, Feb.10, 2017.
https://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2017/02/we-can-resist-trumps-deportation-orders.html
The Trump people, then Steve Bannon, now Steve Miller are so blinded by their ideology that they did not see what was clearly obvious. Of course they will continue And we need to continue to resist.
By Duane Campbell. Feb. 13, 2017
The chaos created by Donald Trump’s ban on refugees is only the beginning of a crisis that Trump and his allies are creating. Less noticed was Trump’s rollout of executive actions on immigration and the border wall on Jan. 25. These executive orders were the opening act of what is certain to be an aggressive crackdown on unauthorized immigration. The left responded quickly to the Jan. 27 ban on refugees with important protests and significant legal challenges. However, Trump has created so many crises in his first weeks that it would be easy to miss the long-term train wreck being created by Trump’s earlier executive actions on the border wall and the expansion of arrests and deportations.
On Jan. 25 Trump signed an executive order on immigration
that directs ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents to use a broadened definition of “criminal” and focus deportation efforts not only on those who have been convicted of crimes, but also those who have been charged, or “have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.” This order will increase the number of persons subject to deportation by at least 2 million and the order will triple the number of agents in the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations office and give them broad power to ultimately decide who should be deported. Increased deportations have already begun under this new executive order.
Past use of aggressive interior enforcement, then called “Secure Communities,” was an abject failure. ICE agents conducted raids and arrested people at work sites, schools, and on the streets. Often they jailed complete families. In most cases, these arrests and deportations depended upon the cooperation of local police and social service agencies (see sanctuary cities, below). The campaigns deported parents of U.S. citizens, disrupting families, schools, and workplaces. The raids were too often done without proper warrants and other procedural safeguards.
The Wall (or Fence)
We should not assume that each of the Trump executiveorders will be accepted and implemented. On the contrary. The orders produce contradictions and will produce resistance.
Yes, the U.S. can build a wall or fencing on the U.S. side of the border, except for that portion of the border that is on the Tohono O’odhom reservation in Arizona. But the wall will be an expensive failure.
Trump’s demand to build the wall and to impose tariffs is producing a reaction in Mexico. The U.S. not only imports from Mexico, U.S. corporations also exported to Mexico $267 billion dollars worth of goods in 2015. Mexico is the U.S.’s second largest export market. A tariff on the U.S. side will likely produce a tariff on the Mexican side that could cost some 1 million jobs in the U.S.
And the future failure on cooperation with the Mexican army and police in drug enforcement is also predictable.
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