Trump, politicians, media mislead the public about immigrants

Trump’s 2016 political campaign rhetoric and lies about immigrants have continued in subsequent years.  Many other politicians act as if Trump’s lies were true.

Mainstream media have failed to correct Trump’s lies, so most Americans seem to believe them.

There is NOT a flood of immigrants entering the U.S. from Mexico.  Actually, the numbers dropped 90% from 1.7 million in 2005 to only 170,000 in 2015.  Also, more Mexican people are LEAVING the U.S. and moving to Mexico than vice versa.

Most people who are here illegally did NOT come from our southern border.  Most came here on tourist visas, worker visas, or student visas, and simply stayed after their visas expired.  They have come here from many European nations, Asian nations, and elsewhere.  They arrived at our airports, not by crossing our southern border.

Trump’s rhetoric about immigration — just like everything else he says — is not about understanding problems and solving them.  It is about stirring up fear and anger and racism for his own selfish political purposes and in order to hurt vulnerable people.

Ethical politicians and mainstream media have utterly failed to expose and correct Trump’s lies.  They have failed to set the record straight.  Their negligence hurts our nation.  We need better politicians and better media.

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org