OPINION:
The immigration issue has become the Gordian knot of our time. It really isn’t that complicated, but advocates of uncontrolled borders are more interested in turning up the heat than turning on the light. They’re relentlessly dishonest. They’re trying to paint the Trump presidency as a movement of Neanderthals intent on reversing “progressive” gains.
The United States is indeed a nation of immigrants, something repeated ad nauseam. But there are two kinds of immigrants — the legal and the illegal. America is comprised mostly of the first persuasion. As President Trump implements executive orders to restrict the second persuasion, the liberals and their extreme left allies deliberately blur the distinction. They’re determined to brand him as a xenophobe who hates foreigners (the fact that he’s married to one notwithstanding).
Almost all of the 325 million Americans can trace their roots to an ancestor who entered by way of a legal procedure. The original colonists arrived before the United States was born. It’s the illegals — those dodging authorities to enter surreptitiously — who are the subject of the contentious immigration debate. It’s only those seven nations rife with terrorism which have been affected by Mr. Trump’s restrictions at ports of entry. Most are Muslims, but by no means all. Some are Christians, a few are Jews and some are none of the above. Like the children’s game of telephone, when whispers are distorted with each telling, the facts of the presidential order have been bent, folded, and spindled to the point of being unrecognizable.
The president, it bears repeating here, has suspended entry for three months refugees from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia. Refugee resettlement has been halted for four months. The pause is a breathing space to enable U.S. authorities to strengthen screening procedures to protect Americans from terrorists. “Extreme vetting,” which Candidate Trump promised he would order if elected, is still in the plans.
Opponents call the order a Muslim ban, which Mr. Trump talked about during the campaign, and wisely discarded after he was elected. Barack Obama has contributed to the deception with a false narrative about the Trump executive order, sending a spokesman to announce piously, “The president fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.” Of course, the order says nothing about “faith or religion,” only country of origin. Mr. Obama is no uninformed rube getting his news from Twitter. His subterfuge is deliberate.
Karen Hobert Flynn of the liberal organization Common Cause says the order is a “constitutionally suspect and un-American immigration ban,” masterminded by Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions, and reason enough to postpone his confirmation. That the halt is temporary is ignored.
News has arrived on the latest stage coach that California is racing to become the first sanctuary state. It’s already pocked with cities and towns refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities attempting to track down criminal aliens hiding in their midst. With 32 percent of its residents saying they endorse secession from the union, California redefines fantasy.
Most Americans applaud Mr. Trump’s effort to make the nation safer. A Rasmussen poll finds the president’s immigration order backed by 82 percent of Republicans, 59 percent of independents, and 34 percent of the Democrats.
Liberal attempts to conflate national security with xenophobia will fail. Americans owe their fortune to the ambitions of immigrants, but favor lawful entry. It’s guests who arrive uninvited who are the authors of the confusion.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.