Yesterday, thousands of people took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles to protest the deportations of illegal immigrants. Traffic was shut down and Mexican flags were everywhere to be seen. The below photos are from the LA Times.
Being married to a (legal) Mexican immigrant, I consider myself to be sensitive to the circumstances involving the decades-long illegal immigration problem from Mexico. As I have said repeatedly, the Mexican government, an oligarchy in my view, is the real culprit-although there are many culprits on both sides of the border. Mexico, contrary to popular belief, is not a poor country. It is a wealthy country with all sorts of natural resources including petroleum and tourism. yet, the wealth never trickles down to the poor people, who do not have access to a good education and jobs to support their families. That is the principal reason why millions have chosen to come to the US, illegally if necessary. Most of these people, aside from committing the crime of entering illegally, are leading law-abiding lives and working. They are not the people we should be targeting for deportation. Those we should be targeting are the criminals, the gangs, the cartels, the human traffickers, and the suspected terrorists from other parts of the world that the previous administration allowed in-many from Canada.
I firmly believe that is exactly what ICE is doing under the leadership of Tom Homan, the Border Czar. He realizes that they don't have the time, the manpower, and the resources to chase down the farm workers, factory workers, and gardeners who are simply trying to make a living.
Yet, I know from my personal sources that these people are fearful of being picked up and deported. Who can blame them? They are being fed information from sources like Univision and the mainstream media that the knock on the door is coming. My message to them is to relax, but that is hardly going to allay their fears.
All that said, I don't think that what happened in Los Angeles yesterday is helpful. Waving Mexican flags in the US at a protest against a US policy is not the way to win supporters. Can you imagine if thousands of Americans in Mexico were marching through the streets of a Mexican city waving US flags in support of the deportation policy? It would not be well received. No doubt many of the protesters were US citizens of Mexican descent or non-Mexican, non-Hispanic descent. That is lost amid the powerful imagery of Mexican (and Central American) flags. It also took place in a city that calls itself a sanctuary city and that has pledged non-cooperation with Trump's policy. That means no cooperation with ICE, no ICE access to its jails, and no notification to ICE that they have an illegal criminal alien in their custody. Thus, as Homan has stated, it necessitates ICE having to go into the communities to capture targeted individuals and face the possibility of violence as opposed to simply taking custody of them or placing detainers on them while they are in jail. Not only does that mean that there is increased danger to everybody concerned, but any illegal aliens found with the target will also be taken into custody. Why should ICE ignore someone who is in the company of a known criminal and is also in the country illegally?
Like most Americans, I want the criminals from other countries deported, and from what I see that is exactly the focus. As for the protest in Los Angeles, it appears it went off without violence and that is good. However, the presence of Mexican and other flags from various nations sends the wrong message. Better to leave them at home.
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