Dem
47
GOP
53
During his campaign, since his reelection, and since his inauguration, Donald Trump has made many claims about what policies he's planning to pursue, and why. The problem is that the administration's actions are often so far removed from the rhetoric as to make his promises laughable. There were numerous examples of that in the last 24 hours alone.
For example, Trump has (clumsily) enunciated a plan to reduce undocumented immigration to the United States. The stated purpose, which varies from speech to speech, is sometimes combating crime, sometimes combating fentanyl smuggling, sometimes preserving jobs for American workers, and sometimes... hey, look over there!
Yesterday, the White House executed the latest, and broadest, version of a trick it has now used several times, mass-revoking the residency status of people who were in the country legally. The newest targets are roughly 985,000 folks who came to the U.S. using the Biden-era CBP One app.
The basic thinking behind CBP One was that people are going to try to come to the United States, whether the government likes it or not. And so, the Biden administration offered something of a trade: Immigrants could come and make an appointment at the border, and were often given temporary work authorization. So, the immigrants avoided the risks that come with trying to enter the U.S. illegally, while employers get quality employees for jobs that otherwise were tough to fill. Seems like a pretty good example of taking lemons and making lemonade to us.
By unilaterally announcing that the CBP One entrants must now self-deport (and the app has been renamed "CBP Home"), the administration is going after the absolute lowest-hanging fruit. These 985,000 individuals are easy to find, since they are not in the U.S. "off the books." And they tend to be very law-abiding, which is why they pursued this legal avenue that was made available to them. Many, perhaps most of them, are likely to leave voluntarily.
This new "approach" has nothing to do with the stated goals of Trump's anti-immigration platform. These 985,000 people are not committing crimes (because they want to stay), and they certainly aren't smuggling fentanyl. They are also, on the whole, NOT taking jobs from native-born Americans. With only a few exceptions, it makes no sense for an employer to import a new employee from abroad (who probably does not speak much English), unless that employer simply can't find people domestically.
The real motivation here could not be more plain. The Trump administration, despite its promises to the contrary, has not been able to increase the number of deportations per month, as compared to the Biden administration. By going after easy targets—targets much, much, much easier than actual gang members and/or drug smugglers—the White House can goose the numbers and can claim "victory." This, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with making life better for the average American. (Z)