Ingraham: Border rush and possible election crush
If Republicans choose to unite behind the president's immigration policy the way they did in the kavanaugh fight, this will stoke voter enthusiasm even further ahead of an all too important midterm election for this country.
As our cable competitors are devoting hours of coverage today to the president's tweets about Stormy Daniels, voters I think are just tuning it out. Why? Because the voters are smarter than the media thinks they are.
Americans outside the leftist activist bubble are focused on issues that actually affect their daily lives – pocketbook issues. Like the fact that the stock market jumped 500 points today. That’s good for your 401(k).
The Labor Department reported that there are 7 million job openings currently in the United States. And our industrial output is surging. This is all fantastic news.
But Americans also see some trouble on the horizon, like lawlessness at the border that no advanced society should tolerate. We have another migrant caravan – as many as 4,000 people I’m told – making its way from Honduras to the United States.
President Trump has had just about enough. At a weekend rally in Kentucky he told the crowd, “We have the dumbest immigration laws in the world. The world laughs at us, but we are getting them changed. We need some more Republicans. We need some votes.”
I’ll say.
For many years voters have been telling politicians to enforce the border and close immigration loopholes. In fact, even on the issue of legal immigration, the country is not clamoring for big increases.
According to a Gallup poll taken in June, only 28 percent of Americans want immigration levels increased. Twenty-nine percent of Americans want them decreased. A plurality (39 percent) want them to remain the same.
Most politicians continue to just ignore the wishes of the people. They continue to expand things like distant-relative chain migration. They refuse to allocate money to the building of the entire wall at the southern border. And they refuse to pass legislation to allow for immediate border turn-backs of anyone crossing illegally.
Democrats are against all tightening of the current rules for asylum.
Donald Trump won the presidency in large part because he wouldn't accept the status quo on immigration. And as usual, he was five steps ahead of almost every Republican congressman on the issue.
In July, Gallup found that Americans identified immigration as the top issue for them going into the midterms. Last month it was the second-most important issue tied with general economic problems.
Democrats thought that a focus on the difficult issue of child separation – a practice that the administration has now ended – would turn out voters and get Democrats and Latinos really excited.
But I don't think it is working for them. Back in 2016, the Latino voter turnout rate did not increase amid Trump's push for the wall and stronger immigration enforcement.
And of course Hispanic American neighborhoods and communities are disproportionately affected by the impact of illegal immigration. Ditto for black Americans.
The good news is that as the drama surrounding this second migrant caravan unfolds, some establishment Republicans are waking up to the wisdom of Trump.
Over the weekend Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-South Carolina, told "Fox and Friends," “It makes the immigration debate more on Trump’s terms. There is no right to come to America. We can have rules about who comes. And where is Mexico? Mexico needs to help us because the last time I checked you just can't walk from Guatemala to here without going through Mexico.”
President Trump warned the president of Honduras, tweeting “The United States has strongly informed the president of Honduras that if the large caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!”
Vice President Pence had separately warned the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to tell their people not to make the dangerous trek to America, tweeting the “U.S. will not tolerate this blatant disregard for our border and sovereignty.”
By the way, Honduras is on track to receive $65.7 million in foreign aid from the U.S. in the upcoming 2019 fiscal year.
But back to the midterms. As frustrated as so many of us are with the Republicans and what they have failed to do at the border, the cause may be totally lost if the open borders Democrats take the House.
While the president is focused on important things like abolishing the illegal immigrant gang MS-13, Democrats want to abolish ICE and ensure “safe passage” for illegal immigrants to the U.S.
The choice could not be clearer for the midterm voters. There is so much on the line for America.
Will Trump get the funding for his wall? Will the mass migration from other poor countries in Central America be stopped at all? Ever?
Will travesties such as birthright citizenship finally be ended? Will we mandate E-verify to penalize businesses who game the system to keep American wages low?
Of this my friends you can be sure: Your views on immigration will have zero impact and zero influence on a House dominated by Democrats who want to replace you, the American voters, with newly-amnestied citizens and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants.
However, if Republicans choose to unite behind the president’s immigration policy, the way they just did in the Kavanaugh fight, it will stoke voter enthusiasm even further ahead of the all too important midterm elections.
Adapted from Laura Ingraham's monologue on "The Ingraham Angle," Oct.16, 2018.
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