As published in the Immigration Daily on September 17, 2018.
Where did the America go of honor, charity to strangers, and love of country? It’s missing. Terrible things are happening on the immigration front. Countless lives are being upended by the present Administration’s policies running roughshod over the entire terrain of immigration, regardless of whether people are legal or illegal. The abuses run from forced separation of children from their parents, deporting people to certain death who fail credibility interviews which now have incredibly heightened standards, allowing people on the southern border to bake in the sun for days on end to make a claim for asylum, changing asylum standards to exclude those basing claims on gang and domestic violence, dragging out the immigration process to resemble the old slow ways and days of the 1980s and 1990s, putting a target on H-1B specialty occupation petitions by sending out astonishing numbers of requests for evidence and denials, denying record numbers of L-1 intra-company transferee petitions, and changing rules by fiat making it more difficult for all legal non-immigrants to change status to student, punishing F, M, and J students who may have fallen out of status in the past even due to the fault of the school, discouraging all who think to apply for adjustment of status to permanent residence if they have no backup legal status as a denial will result in a Notice to Appear (NTA) in the immigration court as to why they should not be removed (presently on hold as U.S.C.I.S. figures out how to implement the rule), and denying cases filed on 9/11/18 and after without opportunity to correct through a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) or Request for Evidence (RFE) if required papers or forms are missing in an application.
On the launch pad are three proposed rules which cannot be done by fiat, but that the Administration will try to ramrod through shortly – a public charge rule designed to bar lower income immigrants and the ability of their sponsors to file for them (read mostly Hispanics and blacks from other countries, not Europeans), an asylum rule to enshrine by regulation the disallowance of asylum for victims of domestic or gang violence and bar from asylum those who enter the country illegally and are convicted of illegal entry (read Hispanics), and a rule to stop employment authorization for H-4 spouses of H-1B specialized occupation aliens which is currently in final clearance and review. It should be noted that, at least with these three, the public will have a notice and comment period before the rules can be implemented.
And yet this collective misery is absolute music to the Administration and Trump supporters across the United States. In this case, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Events that shock the sensibilities of many concerned citizens besides the attack on immigration such as those on the environment, regulations enacted to prevent economic disasters, opposing health care and abortion rights, championing underfunded tax cuts giving great advantage to the rich, and tolerating rampant corruption in his administration for as long as possible for loyalists are met with great cheer and leaves one to wonder whether there will ever be a last straw with Trump supporters before the midterms,
Yet moderates and independents who voted for Mr. Trump and the Republicans in 2016 should consider whether it is time to assert American values in a repudiation of the Republican Party which has lost its soul to Donald Trump, a vainglorious amoral man without love of anything besides himself, perhaps his family, and his business empire. A man who denies reality, has told 5000 lies as commander-in-chief, plays the sycophant to Vladimir Putin, toadies up to other dictators for no discernible national advantage, brushes away time-honored allies, supported the Russian denial of interference in the 2016 elections over the assessments of US intelligence agencies, begins trade wars which are economically sapping the country, has extramarital affairs and lies to cover them up, and believes that his federal agencies including the Department of Justice should be used to hound his political opponents and give him political advantage rather than impartially dispense justice. Besides a mean and malevolent spirit, the best reason for which things should not continue in their present state is his lack of interest in any complicated issue as remarked upon by many in the White House who have variously been quoted as calling him an “idiot,” has the attention span of a child,” “brain of a kindergartner,” “anti-trade and antidemocratic,” “f_ _ _ _ _ _ moron” and “The Big Problem: The president did not understand the importance of allies overseas, the value of diplomacy or the relationship between the military, the economy and intelligence partnerships with foreign governments.”
Hopefully the America of men and women who have given their lives for love of country will return and we can begin to see the end of the enthrallment with a president who acts more like a crooked used-car dealer, grifter, and circus barker selling sideshow tickets to see the unicorn and three headed giraffe.
Reprinted with permission.