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Common Sense Says No to Racism and Bigotry and No to Trump’s Police State
In his August 31, 2016, Phoenix, Arizona, immigration speech, Donald Trump’s stated intent – if elected President – should strike fear into the heart of anyone who could be singled out. He said:
“We will issue detainers for illegal immigrants who are arrested for any crime whatsoever, and they will be placed into immediate removal proceedings if we even have to do that.”
The statement raises the specter of a police state, where police feel empowered to create or manufacture reasons to arrest persons based on appearance alone. In Trump’s speech, to be arrested is to be convicted, and “any crime whatsoever” could include a burned out taillight, jaywalking, suspicion of shoplifting, or, as an officer once told me after pulling me over, “You almost didn’t stop at that stop sign.” It’s not hard to imagine other scenarios reminiscent of other police states, including Pinochet’s Chile, Franco’s Spain, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and – the ultimate – Hitler’s Germany, where millions of Jews were unfairly blamed for the country’s economic problems and were then systematically rounded up and exterminated in gas chambers.
As a nation of immigrants, we know that any of us or our family members or friends could be unfairly singled out. Our common sense tells us to say No! to Trump and not go down Trump’s terrible path.
Immigration Reform: The Long View
I wrote this post a few years ago. The recent political campaigns and debates reminded me to take another look at the post. My opinion remains the same.
Social benefit programs work when there are more people paying in and fewer people receiving benefits. Social Security and Medicare programs must have been based on a model that assumed perpetual growth of a working population that would always outnumber (or out-pay) those receiving benefits. But now, it appears that the large post World War II Baby Boom generation may bankrupt these programs as it moves into retirement age and depends on the support of a smaller working population.
Fortunately, the United States is in a position to establish policies that can support the continuation of programs like Social Security and Medicare by taking advantage of its continuing standing in the world as a land of opportunity – a place where people can come from all over the world and find success, in much the same way that our forebears did.
We should view the current, 2012 immigration policy question…
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albertsperspective 