On Tuesday morning the Supreme heard oral arguments on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case. They are determining whether or not to uphold the decisions by lower courts to overturn Donald Trump’s ruling to terminate the program and put the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” in jeopardy.
Dreamers are undocumented residents who were brought to the U.S. as children. Most of them grew up here and have never known any life in the native country of their parents, and don’t speak any language other than English. In order to be eligible for DACA status they must have no criminal record and must be productie residents who are either working, in school, or in the military. But despite these criteria, Trump has been attacking them for years with flagrant lies and defamation. And on the morning that the Supreme Court took up this case, Trump tweeted this atrocity:
Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from “angels.” Some are very tough, hardened criminals. President Obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2019
It’s rather impressive how Trump can get so much wrong in 280 characters or less. Let’s dive into his staggeringly hateful and blatantly erroneous blather.
First of all: Trump leads off by insinuating there is some significance to the fact that some of the Dreamers have grown up and are no longer young. So what? That doesn’t negate the fact that they were brought here as children and know no other home. Trump’s only purpose in injecting this diversion is to imply that there is something untoward about them being adults. But it is entirely irrelevant to the discussion of whether they should be allowed to stay and earn citizenship.
Secondly: Trump falsely asserts that some Dreamers “are very tough, hardened criminals.” However, the program expressly requires that they have no criminal record. Trump is simply lying about this to smear the reputation of law abiding, patriotic, aspiring Americans. It’s not only dishonest, it’s repulsive and inhumane.
Third: Trump’s assertion that President Obama said he “had no right” to initiate the DACA program is another provable lie. PolitiFact reviewed previous claims by Trump on this subject and declared them “Mostly False.” Obama never said that he didn’t have the “legal right” to sign a DACA executive order. He merely said that he couldn’t unilaterally overturn existing laws. And he went on to state that, therefore, there was no legal impediment to DACA because it wouldn’t do that.
Fourth: Trump declares that if the Supreme Court rules against DACA, he would make a deal with Democrats to achieve the same objectives. But that’s a brazenly disingenuous offer. There is no reason he couldn’t have crafted a legislative solution with Congress long before this. He didn’t need a Supreme Court decision to do that. But instead, he personally killed every attempt by Congress to pass such legislation. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said that he wouldn’t advance any immigration bill unless Trump agreed to sign it in advance, which he never did.
Finally: Trump’s tweeted offer to support an immigration bill that allows Dreamers to stay in the U.S. is bizarre given his complaints in the same tweet. He is asserting that if the Supreme Court rules against DACA, he will support a bill permitting DACA recipients, who he says include “very tough, hardened criminals,” to stay in the country permanently. Really?
That is typical of the raging incoherence that infects virtually every policy position taken by Trump. He is profoundly ignorant and incapable of forming rational arguments. And that’s just another reason why he is utterly unfit to serve as president. He is not just an embarrassment to the nation, he is an imminent danger. But at least he is adept at cramming loads of gooey nonsense into his half-witted (at best) tweets.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
