To the Editor:

Perhaps no issue separates the two major presidential candidates more than immigration. To complicate the challenge for voters, this complex issue is poorly reported and debate tends to be shallow and uninformed. The result? A public “flying blind” on this issue when entering the voting booth.

But whether they know it or not, voters will choose from two very different sets of policies.

In his August 31 Phoenix speech on immigration, Trump elaborated on his 10-point immigration agenda. In skeleton form, these are:

1) Build a wall along the Southern Border;

2) End Catch-And-Release;

3) Zero tolerance for criminal aliens;

4) Block funding for Sanctuary cities;

5) Cancel unconstitutional executive orders & enforce all immigration laws;

6) Suspend the issuance of visas to any place where adequate screening cannot occur;

7) Ensure that other countries take their people back when we order them deported;

8) Complete a biometric entry-exit visa tracking system;

9) Turn off the jobs and benefits magnet; and

10) Reform legal immigration to serve the best interests of America and its workers.

Read or watch the speech for details. Transcripts and video are online. I will comment only on #5, the two candidates’ very different approaches to President Obama’s executive amnesties.

In 2012 President Obama launched Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA told illegal aliens who claim to have illegally entered the U. S. before the age of 16 that they need not fear deportation. Perhaps it was a coincidence. Within two years unaccompanied minors from Central America were surging over the U. S. border.

In 2014 President Obama began Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). DAPA told illegal aliens that if you have a baby on U. S. soil, you’re home free. The Supreme Court, however, deadlocked 4-4 on the constitutionality of DAPA. This forestalled DAPA’s implementation. One more Democrat-appointed Supreme Court judge would tip the balance in favor of DAPA.

Hillary Clinton would defend and expand DACA and DAPA.

Voters will decide on the Obama executive amnesties and on each of the other nine points in the Trump Phoenix speech. Every one of those points reveal dramatic differences between Trump and Hillary Clinton. All ten deserve voter scrutiny.

Tom Shuford
Lenoir, NC

 

SOURCES:

1) TRUMP PHOENIX SPEECH ON IMMIGRATION

AUGUST 31, 2016

TRANSCRIPT

http://heavy.com/news/2016/08/read-donald-trump-immigration-speech-august-31-phoenix-arizona-full-transcript-text/

VIDEO (Trump begins talking 38m into video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaF_NwVbIgo

2) CLINTON POSITIONS ON DACA AND DAPA:

Clinton Releases Plan to Dissolve U.S. Border Within 100 Days

by JULIA HAHN

Breitbart News

25 May 2016

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/25/clinton-releases-plan-dissolve-us-border-within-100-days/

RELEVANT EXCERPT: “You can count on me to defend President Obama’s executive actions on DACA and DAPA when I am president,” Clinton said, referring to Obama’s 2012 (DACA) and 2014 (DAPA) executive amnesties, which gave work permits and access to federal benefits to millions of illegal immigrants . . . Clinton’s website says she will “extend those actions to additional persons with sympathetic cases if Congress refuses to act.”

3) VERIFICATION OF THE DRAMATIC SURGE OF MINORS FROM CENTRAL AMERICA IN 2014 AFTER DACA LAUNCH IN 2012:

Dramatic Surge in the Arrival of Unaccompanied Children Has Deep Roots and No Simple Solutions; Migration Policy Institute

JUNE 13, 2014

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dramatic-surge-arrival-unaccompanied-children-has-deep-roots-and-no-simple-solutions