NPR Blows a Gasket Because Insensitive President Called Murderers and Rapists “Animals”

President Trump recently held a meeting with California officials who oppose the state’s “sanctuary” policies. During that meeting the President said:

“We have people coming into the country — or trying to come in, we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country, you wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.”

Predictably, the mainstream media suffered a crippling attack of the politically correct vapors. National Public Radio (NPR) promptly implied that the president is a racist troglodyte – even while it repeatedly noted that the Mr. Trump referred only to “some” illegal aliens.

So, to use the language of the radical left, let’s unpack what President Trump actually said and look at the small segment of the illegal alien population to which he was clearly referring.

Mr. Trump’s statement was a direct response to Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims concerns that California is turning illegal alien gang members loose in the Golden State’s communities.

He specifically referenced illegal alien criminals and gang members who are stopped by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or removed from the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). And he followed up with a comment on just how bad these types of offenders really are.

Let’s consider who CBP and ICE are dealing with. A few examples, just from April of this year:

  • On April 2, 2018, agents from the Border Patrol’s El Centro California Sector arrested a dangerous gang member and a convicted sex offender who had an active Orange County, Calif., warrant for dangerous drugs.
  • On April 3, 2018, Border Patrol agents from Eagle Pass Station in Texas arrested a previously deported, convicted rapist trying to re-enter the United States.
  • On April 6, 2018, El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a previously deported, convicted murderer.

In a six-day operation in mid-April 2018, ICE arrested 225 illegal aliens in New York. 180 of those aliens had criminal convictions, including child sex crimes, weapons charges and assault. 80 of those arrested had previously been deported from the United States.

In a three day operation that concluded on April 18, 2018, ICE arrested 33 foreign human rights violators.

Most Americans would consider “animals” to be a fairly accurate description of child rapists and murderers. The majority of average Americans would also be comfortable referring to torturers and war criminals as “animals.”

So, what exactly did the President do that provoked the ire of NPR and its ilk? He told the truth. Some illegal alien criminals do behave like animals. But that doesn’t square with what Ann Coulter has called the, “civic religion of treating every non-American as better than an American — a potential valedictorian, Medal of Honor winner and Nobel Prize recipient.”

Maybe it’s time for NPR to put on its big-boy britches and face the truth. Every year, the United States deports roughly a quarter-million people. An alarmingly high percentage of them have criminal convictions. And a frightening number of those convictions involve the kind of predatory behavior that can only be described as “animalistic.”

Matt O'Brien: Matthew J. O’Brien joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 2016. Matt is responsible for managing FAIR’s research activities. He also writes content for FAIR’s website and publications. Over the past twenty years he has held a wide variety of positions focusing on immigration issues, both in government and in the private sector. Immediately prior to joining FAIR Matt served as the Chief of the National Security Division (NSD) within the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), where he was responsible for formulating and implementing procedures to protect the legal immigration system from terrorists, foreign intelligence operatives, and other national security threats. He has also held positions as the Chief of the FDNS Policy and Program Development Unit, as the Chief of the FDNS EB-5 Division, as Assistant Chief Counsel with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, as a Senior Advisor to the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, and as a District Adjudications Officer with the legacy Immigration & Naturalization Service. In addition, Matt has extensive experience as a private bar attorney. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in French from the Johns Hopkins University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maine School of Law.