Politico,\nan inside-the-Beltway news site, rarely passes up an opportunity to take\npotshots at President Donald Trump. Its latest salvo from America\u2019s southern\nborder went even wider left than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly miffed at the administration\u2019s efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, Politico posted a \u201cletter\u201d<\/a> from Tijuana this week. The key passage read:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne\nof the most direct effects of Trump\u2019s border policy is that thousands of\nforeigners from all over the world have found themselves unexpectedly stuck on\nthe southern border. Since 2017, Trump has turned the country\u2019s immigration\nsystem on its head to deter Central American asylum-seekers. But policies meant\nto address Guatemalan or Honduran migrants have also affected Jewish people\nfleeing persecution in Hungary; Syrians escaping civil war in their home\ncountry; and LGBTQ people fleeing Vladimir Putin\u2019s homophobic regime in Russia.\nThe effects of U.S. border policy are not confined to northern Mexico. They\nreverberate around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How\nmuch victimology and absurdity can a single paragraph contain? Let\u2019s unpack it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. “Unexpectedly stuck at the\nborder”? <\/em>Who (besides Politico) doesn\u2019t know about America\u2019s ramped-up\nborder security? This has long been a subject of much anxious reporting in the\nmedia. There\u2019s nothing \u201cunexpected\u201d about this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Securing the border “turns\nthe immigration system on its head”?<\/em> <\/em>Whether migrants are bona fide refugees or run-of-the-mill illegal\naliens, national security and the rule of law demand that a functional\nimmigration system determine the difference. A system that fails to effectively\nvet immigrants is upside-down. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3.\u201cJewish people fleeing persecution in Hungary.\u201d<\/em> Unlike every other one of the groups mentioned, these are\npeople who are already guaranteed refuge in a developed Western nation\n(Israel). They don\u2019t even have to prove that they are being persecuted in\nHungary to gain admission. If they are stuck at the border it is of their own\nchoosing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. \u201c<\/em>Syrians \u2026 and\nLGBTQ Russians\u201d?<\/em> These folks certainly passed\nthrough at least one safe country (they\u2019re in Mexico!), and very likely several\nsafe countries on their journey to the U.S.-Mexico border without asking for\nprotection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Implicit in Politico\u2019s narrative is an assumption that migrants\nare entitled to enter the U.S. after traversing the globe and skipping through several\nnations to get here. Summarily admitting people who simply show up to claim\nasylum is not an immigration system; it\u2019s a mockery of national borders and\nundermines state sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Politico\u2019s bizarre dispatch goes on to blame Trump for Eastern Europeans landing on America\u2019s doorstep, as if that were a new phenomenon. In fact, some of the current figures cited are smaller than those recorded in 2016<\/a>, the last year of the Obama administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But such historical context is only so much niggling detail to Politico, whose founding editor recently mused, \u201cWhat if [Donald] Trump Weren\u2019t Nuts?\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who\u2019s\nunhinged now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Politico, an inside-the-Beltway news site, rarely passes up an opportunity to take potshots at President Donald Trump. Its latest salvo from America\u2019s southern border went even wider left than usual. Clearly miffed at the administration\u2019s efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, Politico posted a \u201cletter\u201d from Tijuana this week. The key passage read: \u201cOne of<\/p>\n