Mainstream Media has amnesia when it comes to Trump

Let’s tear down revisionist history on what Donald J. Trump actually said about deportations, starting when he was a candidate for a second term as President.

In recent days, and earlier, traditional news outlets, such as the Associated Press and the Philadelphia Inquirer, have published stories reporting that deportations went much further than the “worst of the worst.”

These outlets, and many others, plus most Democrats, strongly imply or actually say, that his plan was to deport only the “worst of the worst.”

That is a false narrative. He never said that. He said starting with the worst of the worst, when he qualified it at all. Yet that seems to have pushed down the legacy media’s memory hole and you are entitled to ask if it is deliberate — like the Mainstream Media’s banishment of the word illegal from the immigration debate. 

When Trump actually said, right from the jump, was that he planned to target all illegals, and would conduct “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

Many sources reported that quote, and many want to forget it. But he said it, and he was widely quoted, even by the hard Left and anti-Trump American Civil Liberties Union. You can read its report here. 

And with mass deportation as a major plank in his campaign — the economy, tariffs, and America First being the others — Trump swept into office with strong majorities in the popular vote and the Electoral College.

I am no fan of Trump’s, but I am a fan of fair play.

There is no doubt that ICE is not rounding up only the “worst of the worst,” which is generally defined as those who have committed a violent crime either before or after illegal entry. The numbers show the vast majority of those arrested have committed no crime other than the border violation, which does  break federal law and for which deportation is the usual punishment, if you call repatriation “punishment.”

But mass deportation does not prove Trump is breaking his word. It proves the opposite — that he is keeping it. He is conducting the largest domestic deportation sweep in American history.

Your distaste for it does not change the facts. I don’t like it and have suggested a five-point solution to the immigration mess, which you can find in this post. 

Two other things are also true:

1- He sealed the border, and there has been no opposition to that from rational people, which excludes the Open Border loons.

2- Immigration enforcement has gone from the net positive that helped Trump win the election, to a net negative, with more than half of all Americans opposing mass deportation. Why?

Generally, because of ICE’s heavy-handed tactics, specifically the killing of two Americans, plus breaking the law. Those charged with enforcing the law can’t be violating the law.

Your dislike of Trump’s policy does not entitle you to pretend that this is not exactly what he promised.