Josh wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2024 10:30 pm
Last I checked, Trump hasn’t been in power for 4 years and isn’t in charge of much of anything, other than some golf courses.
The institutions to control immigration have existed for a while. The point is, those institutions have been basically disabled, because an
authoritarian approach has appeared instead - find ways to flout the established law and regulations, which is we now have tens of millions of illegal aliens in this country. (Don’t bother bringing up fake asylum claims again; it’s not a useful discussion.)
This isn't about post-presidency Trump. This is about what he SAYS he wants to do if re-elected for a new term.
The immigration institutions in this country haven't been disabled. They have been underfunded by both parties for decades which has resulted in a system in which egregious delays amount to a loophole. The obvious institutional solution is to properly fund and staff up the immigration infrastructure in this country which is what a consensus of both Democrats and Republicans tried to do. Until Trump convinced his MAGA sycophants in the House to block those efforts for partisan reasons.
In any event his authoritarian posturing is probably mostly hot air. Do you actually know anyone in the National Guard? I do. They did not sign up to be immigration officers. They signed up to be a reserve military force in case of emergencies and to be called up by their governors in times of local emergency (hurricanes, floods, etc.). They are not trained or paid to be full time immigration officers. They have actual lives and other careers. If they are actually going to take on the job of ICE then they should get paid double or triple what they get as guardsmen since that is the work they are doing.
In any event, how is this even going to work? Is he going to send platoons of National Guard on endless workplace raids across the country? Every corporate farm, every meat packing plant, every big construction site, every food processing plant, etc. etc.? That will win him over to his business constituency. When all the peaches in Georgia, oranges in Florida, and produce in California rots in the field due to lack of labor, then what? Are we going to have National Guard immigration roadblocks popping up on every freeway across the country for ID checks? Creating monstrous lines of traffic and congestion? That's going to win him over with suburban commuters. How does one actually round up 20 million illegal immigrants?
And then what? You have to deport them via the same immigration courts that do asylum hearings. You can't simply put people on the next plane. You have to hold a deportation proceeding in front of an immigration judge who will determine if the person in question is actually subject to removal. And not just someone vaguely Hispanic looking who didn't have documents available when he got caught in an immigration dragnet. That isn't going to go any faster than the current asylum hearings. And since we don't have holding cells for 20 million people in this country what next? They will be released back to resume their lives until their deportation hearing comes up in 2 years.
And that's not even addressing the issue that the guard is actually under the control of the various governors. So Texas and Florida will probably cooperate. California, Arizona, New Mexico, New York, Illinois, etc. will not. Is he going to try to federalize the guard for partisan political reasons? Or just call out regular active duty troops?
Sometimes the authoritarian approach is actually the stupid approach. Even if it wins votes.