Crab In the White House
New name, same Dog
Crab In the White House
by Andrew Meblin
Astute readers will note the new title. My photo has not been photoshopped.
As I write this Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, is holding the first press briefing. She has just announced a new policy that holds a seat for reporters and journalists of the media outlets not currently given access to briefings. This, she said, is an attempt to expand press access, as well as increasing executive branch transparency. Hooray!
So, guess what. I have applied to be one of those journalists. I surely have some questions to ask the press secretary. I will not reveal them here, but I will take suggestions from my small but (semi) dedicated subscribers. In my dreams, as a highly esteemed reporter covering the White House with the perspective of an observer of things political for 67 years, I have uniqueness unparalleled by most of the current WHJ’s. *
Of particular interest to me is the subject of immigration. That topic was also just addressed in the ongoing press event. Ms. Leavitt announced that the view of the administration is all people who are in the US without approval are criminals. That is because they have committed the crime of coming into the country illegally. Yikes!
Most of you know my opinions on the subject. I taught students who were “without papers” — in the country illegally. Many had accompanied their parents here when babies or very young children. Almost all of them were splendid teenagers if not perfect students.
President Obama declared by executive order that those who had entered the country as children would be allowed to stay. Per the Dream Act, introduced in 2001, and never approved by Congress, the Obama scheme would have protected from deportation and created a pathway to citizenship for those child immigrants who had graduated from high school, not been convicted of certain crimes, not been involved in the persecution of others, and have lived in the US continuously since arriving**. Depending on how it is applied, I support the Dream Act. Congress should pass it, with a few adjustments. There are questions about what would be the crimes for which the immigrant child has had convictions.
Critics on the right wing say that leniency towards criminal activity has led to an increase in lawlessness. They point to massive mobs of looters, take overs of intersections and highways for pollution-producing sideshows, and worse — an increase in murders and rapes and assault — as a result of police defunding and drug decriminalization. Allowing people with minor criminal convictions to remain in the country does not appeal to many Americans. I hope for middle ground.
There are few people who know these people better than their former teachers. We know the good ones, and the excellent ones. We know the not-so-good as well. Trump and others tend to speak in absolutes, roping all immigrants into the same category. That happens with the Far Left too. Sure, some immigrants have committed heinous acts, but those are in the extreme minority. The vast majority of illegal immigrants are trying to live life in the USA while steering clear of crime – victim or perpetrator. The Trump spokeswoman, Ms. Leavitt, announced that the administration consider anyone in the country illegally to be a criminal. By the letter of the law, yes. But deporting every person without citizenship or a visa would devastate our country. We know that cannot happen instantly, but we need to act with moderation lest we damage our cultural fabric and crash our social structures.
It is the fault of the US Congress that our immigration system is broken. Those men and women of the holy dome need to act now to reform immigration, and I don’t mean that pathetic “bi-partisan” bill that would have allowed 4,500 people per week to enter the country without visas. Congress should include evaluations of potential citizens by high school teachers!
The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said there are some 700,000 illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes here. If that figure is accurate, it amounts to almost 9% of the 8,000,000 people who entered the US without permission during the Biden presidency. That ratio seems a bit off. My former boss Mr. Franco used to say that only five-percent of the students were knuckleheads who didn’t belong in school because of their miscreant manners. So, somewhere in between those two estimates lies the actual number of screw-ups. Everyone else should be in line for citizenship.
As a teacher I had asked perhaps three students if they “have papers.” But many more volunteered that they were here illegally, and I can tell you that almost all of them are good-hearted and helpful people; “good Americans.” They are people who I would hire to work in my business, if I ran one. As always, though, those of us who occupy the middle ground are stuck between two groups, firing at each other over our heads***.
Write your Congressional representatives asking for an immigration law that is comprehensive and still compassionate. Meanwhile, if I make it to the White House pressroom, I will hector Ms. Leavitt and anyone else I meet there for a strong and fair immigration package.
* Despite having lived longer than 67 years, I consider myself to have become aware of socio-political events and opinions at a young age, but not from birth, duh!
** Anyone who has been convicted of serious crimes and is not a citizen should be booted out. Crime hurts people. Crimes for which conviction of that would warrant expulsion are murder, rape, trafficking for prostitution, attempted murder, assault, felony DUI, sale of hard drugs, burglary, robbery, extortion, arson, felonious theft, car jacking, obstruction of justice, participating in a sideshow, driving a Hyundai, and a few other offenses I’ve neglected to mention.
*** As Tyler Cowin wrote in his pamphlet, The Great Stagnation, our political discourse has been degraded considerably as the Right and the Left blame each other for bad policy decisions, and "what I like to call the 'honest middle' cannot be heard above the din."