Administration rhetoric derails needed work on immigration reform
As Markwayne Mullin takes over as the Secretary of Homeland Security, there is the vain hope that he might rein in some of the cruelty, violence, and lawlessness that has characterized ICE’s immigration enforcement under Kristi Noem.
Consider that before his appointment, he was exploring a bipartisan deal on ICE reform measures or that he said that he does not want ICE in the headlines every day.
However, there is an aspect to the immigration debate that began when President Trump rode down the golden escalator in 2015 that still poisons any discussion and that is the characterization of the undocumented as “murders, rapists, gang members – the worst of the worst.” Kristi Noem and others echoed this rhetoric and even created a “worst of the worst” website at DHS to drive home the point.
That rhetoric – and President Biden’s unpardonable neglect of the issue – went a long way to making immigration President Trump’s signature issue, playing a key role in his re-election.
The broadbrush characterization of immigrants as either violent criminals or terrorists, which is untrue – immigrants, per capita, commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans -- derails the larger discussion about immigration reform. You see it when Democrats try to talk about the issue. Inevitably, they preface their remarks with words such as“of course we want to get criminals off the streets…” For many Americans, the discussion ends there.
But, let’s think about this. What is a murderer? Take the case of Jose D. Medina, a Venezuelan immigrant who has been arrested by Chicago police and charged with the murder of Sheridan Goreman. The Trump administration has presented this heinous act as prima facie evidence that its immigration enforcement tactics are justified.
Medina was arrested by Chicago police. He was charged by the Cook County State’s Attorney and will be tried by an Illinois court. If found guilty, he will be sentenced and incarcerated in an Illinois prison. The state has an interest is ensuring that justice is done and he serves out his sentence here. He could be imprisoned in Illinois for the rest of his life.
ICE plays no role in any of that. Yet, if you listen to the president or Stephen Miller or Kristi Noem, one might think that ICE is out there rounding up dangerous criminals. That is not how it works. That is not its role. ICE detains people for immigration violations. That is its statutory mandate.
If Medina is found guilty, ICE can deport him after his sentence is served. This is true of any undocumented individual who has committed a crime and been incarcerated. These are called “custodial arrests” and up until the start of the second Trump term, they were the vast majority of ICE detentions and deportations in the interior of the U.S., as opposed to arrests at the border.
However, by sweeping up people showing up for a court hearing or grabbing landscapers from a job site or a Home Depot parking lot, the administration’s enforcement actions long ago stopped being about detaining the “worst of the worst” but of meeting a quota.
Recent polls have shown that two-thirds of Americans say that undocumented individuals who have lived in America for years and have worked, paid taxes and stayed out of trouble deserve a chance to stay and that ICE’s tactics have gone too far. The president has managed to turn his strongest issue into a net negative by using immigration enforcement to punish his perceived political enemies, not to make America safer.
For 40 years, presidents and Congress have failed to agree on comprehensive immigration reform. It is long overdue. Without it, President Trump’s immigration policy is a failure.
• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86. His book “American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission” is available from Amazon.com.