Watch out, Gramps! ICE is out to get you!
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
The left’s strategy on immigration is focused on turning illegals into victims. Every illegal arrested by ICE is an innocent. Every illegal is now a hardworking person with a devoted family. Illegals who are now imprisoned awaiting deportations are mistreated, deprived of medications and malnourished. ICE is a bunch of brown shirted masked terrorists grabbing people off the streets, raiding places of work willy-nilly. The media has said that legal residents are being harassed and that ICE is profiling. Here is what one advocate says: “The Trump administration’s first six months of immigration policy are a case study in unimaginable cruelty that makes no distinction between legal immigrants and the undocumented, that targets undocumented people who have been here for decades, and that uses brute force police tactics to intimidate communities.”
Actually, very little of that turns out to be true. It seems that the left, having lost the ability to keep the borders open to all comers, is now diligently trying to keep those who entered illegally here by lying and misinformation. It appears to be working as polls now show only 35% of Americans surveyed approve of how the administration is handling illegal immigrants. Of course, I wonder how the questions were phrased. I bet the questions were written so as to evoke a certain response.
But the media is compliant and doing its best to sway public opinion away from the deportation of illegals. The Department of Homeland Security is trying to counter the false stories in the press, but must make a concerted effort on social media to tell its story because the mainstream media will not. Homeland Security is busy issuing press releases and going on social media to debunk many of the sob stories that permeate the press.
What about the headline – “Trump Administration Deports 82 Year Old Pennsylvania Grandfather to Guatemala?” That was false and was a hoax. Also, the story of the grandmother being locked up involved a woman who was “documenting the detention of asylum-seekers with the group Detention Resistance in San Diego.” She was arrested for pushing an officer and cited for assault. Apparently, she was released without charges being filed. Or, famously the reporting on Abrego Garcia, the “kindly Maryland family man” illegally deported to El Salvador? Or the stories of Democrat politicians trying to visit detention centers housing illegals?
The question is, why would anyone believe anything reported in the media? According to Gallup, America’s trust in the media is at a historic low. A Gallup survey found that only 31% of Americans still believe that the media “fully, accurately and fairly” reports the news. Attention: that 31% is delusional. I don’t believe any of it – including Fox.
ICE seriously needs to combat the media disinformation. But it needs some help from the Trump folks. Stephen Miller should keep his mouth shut. He reeks of wanting to deport every illegal, regardless of circumstance. I hear nothing positive from him. No suggestion of a migrant worker program. No suggestion of any thought but ship them out. It was also a bad look for the administration when it revoked the temporary protected status of 300,000 Haitians given by Biden in 2024. Trump also revoked the legal status of 30,000 Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans. I think many, if not most of us, would sympathize with anyone living under those regimes.
But there is the ugliness of Trump moving to deport the Afghans who aided the Americans and fled the country when the Taliban took over. These, too, came to the country under temporary protected status and are now facing deportation. Mind you, the optics of kicking these people out while waiving all restrictions to bring in a bunch of white South African farmers is a bad look.
