Unwelcome Mat
Trump takes his first stab at a Muslim ban.
Chaos ensues.
President Donald Trump rolled out his first executive orders on immigration last week, creating uproar both around the globe (with his temporary halt to refugee programs and travel bans on visitors from seven predominantly Muslim nations) and right here in Southern Arizona (with his plans to build a wall and more prison facilities for undocumented immigrants as well as his threats to punish so-called “sanctuary cities.”)
Trump ordered a 120-day halt to allowing any refugees to enter the United States and barred any citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen from entering the U.S.
Parts of the order were blocked by federal judges last weekend and the Trump administration backed off barring people with green cards from entering the U.S.
Southern Arizona congressional Democrats were quick to criticize Trump’s move. Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ03) told The Skinny that the chaos that followed the release of the executive orders “called into question this government’s ability to do its job and, more importantly, understand its own history. The whole administration right now looks chaotic and unhinged.”
U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ01) said that Trump’s “broad executive order banning refugees from entering our country fails to make America more secure. It ignores our real national security needs and has created chaos at our nation’s airports.”
“This executive order does not represent our nation’s values,” O’Halleran added in a prepared statement. “We can ensure refugees and immigrants coming into our country are properly vetted without violating our Constitution or the bedrock ideals of our democracy.”
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ02) told the Weekly via email that immigration “must be balanced with the foremost priority of the federal government—protecting the American people. I served on a congressional task force focused on combating ISIS that found very real and dangerous gaps in our vetting processes. Likewise, our own intelligence officials have expressed vulnerabilities with these processes, which is why taking a comprehensive look at them is prudent and should be expected of any new administration. However, I have concerns about certain individuals being denied entry, such as green card holders, those who served alongside our military, and partner military service members who train here, such as Iraqi pilots in Tucson.”
Arizona’s Republican senators were more critical of the moves, with Arizona Sen. John McCain joining with Sen. Lindsey Graham of North Carolina to say they feared that Trump’s order “may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security.”
“Our government has a responsibility to defend our borders, but we must do so in a way that makes us safer and upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation,” McCain and Graham said. “It is clear from the confusion at our airports across the nation that President Trump’s executive order was not properly vetted. We are particularly concerned by reports that this order went into effect with little to no consultation with the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security.”
Both senators said Trump’s order would block interpreters who put their lives at risk to work for the U.S. military in danger, as well as hurting refugees who had been vetted and “pose no demonstrable threat to our nation, and who have suffered unspeakable horrors, most of them women and children.”
Trump fired back on Twitter: “The joint statement of former presidential candidates John McCain & Lindsey Graham is wrong—they are sadly weak on immigration. The two senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III.”
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican who was also a frequent critic of Trump during the campaign, also criticized the exec orders via a statement on the website Medium.
Flake wrote that “it’s unacceptable when even legal permanent residents are being detained or turned away at airports and ports of entry. Enhancing long term national security requires that we have a clear-eyed view of radical Islamic terrorism without ascribing radical Islamic terrorist views to all Muslims.”
Concrete Plans
Blockhead orders blocks on border
Speaking of Trump’s executive orders: The Donald announced that the administration would soon start construction of his much-promised border wall, with a continued insistence that Mexico will someday pay for it. Exactly how that’s supposed to happen is a mystery, but a trial balloon to create a 20 percent tax on Mexican imports crashed and burned (although congressional Republicans are kicking around a similar “border-adjustment tax” as part of a major overhaul of tax policy).
Trump also said the U.S. would build more detention facilities and vowed to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities” that shield undocumented immigrants from federal authorities.
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ02) cheered Trump’s executive order in a statement to the press, calling it a “strong start in the right direction. They untie the hands of our Border Patrol Agents and allow them to do their jobs. They also mandate the release of regular border effectiveness data, which is critical to fully understanding the problem. When it comes to barriers, they are important where appropriate, but only part of the equation. What we need is a comprehensive strategy to grow situational awareness, build operational control, and dismantle the cartels and their networks.”
McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak told The Skinny that McSally understands the importance of cross-border trade in Southern Arizona and had not yet decided whether to support a “border-adjustment” tax as a part of a larger GOP tax-reform plan.
Ptak added that McSally did not consider Tucson or South Tucson to be sanctuary cities that would be subject to financial penalties under Trump’s executive order.
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ01) said that the freshman Democrat opposed new taxes on Mexican imports because they would raise prices for Americans consumers. O’Halleran is also opposed to building a wall at the expense of U.S. taxpayers (he remains skeptical that Trump can force Mexico to pay for it) and believes a better proposal would be using more high-tech border surveillance rather than a physical barrier.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva (R-AZ03) blasted the wall proposal, which he said could cost between $12 billion and $21 billion.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Grijalva said. “I don’t think it does anything for deterrence of unauthorized entry into this country. I think it’s political symbolism, if that.”
Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel airs Sunday afternoons at 5 p.m. on KXCI, 91.3 FM, and at 1 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. Sundays on KEVT, 1290 AM. This week’s guests are Congressman Raul Grijalva and Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Lea Marquez Peterson.
This article appears in Feb 2-8, 2017.
what we need is not a wall but consistent use of E-Verify.
Sorry but the militants, the terrorists, the drug runners and the coyotes are not looking to apply for a job. It works at the White House. It can work at the border.
According to Leroy Festus Fuddpucker, a long-time resident of Lizard Bump, Ariz., the “guvment” is going ’bout this all wrong. “What they need is a big trench ‘sted of a wall,” Fuddpucker said. “That way you get the tunnels too!”
As a member of the Law Enforcement community for fifty years, my reaction to the whining and sniveling about the “Muslim” ban (that never mentions Muslims) can only be disbelief. Do these critics have any idea what they are discussing? In the case of women, perhaps they do not.
Vetting a person means running his/her name and fingerprints through a system. Any damn fool can see it is completely impossible to vet someone with no history who’s from a country with no records.
BTW (slightly off the subject, but instructive on Sharia Law) how many whiners are aware that Female Genital Mutilation and Honor killings, en famille, are rules, not exceptions in Sudan and Somalia?
Look up the stats… oh wait, nobody in charge bothers to keep records of those cuttings and killings, but go ahead and google a few interviews with young women from those countries.
This obvious reason President Obama’s Administration listed each country President Trump used to temporarily halt immigration (from those countries only) is their chaos and instability. Obama’s State Department was fully aware of the impossibility of carefully vetting many travelers from Mogadishu or Omdurman so they listed them.
Now recall the San Bernardino terror attack by husband and wife Farook and Malik who killed 14 and wounded 22 of their fellow workers at a holiday office party in December of 2015. The couple left 3 pipe bomb booby traps at the scene for first responders and there were other explosive devices in construction and thousands of rounds of ammunition in plain view at their home where other members of the extended family frequented. One named Marquez, who married into the family, bought rifles and ammunition for the newly wed terrorists after he converted to Islam. The Farook family, father and mother, said they were aware of terrorists, bombs and various plans of mass killing as was Marquez and even neighbors and associates revealed by Marquez in extensive questioning.
Law enforcement – Federal and local – had few records on these people until after the mass murders.
Donald Trump’s common sense comments after the 2015 mass murder are instructive:
“The Muslim community is not reporting whats going on. They should be reporting that their next-door neighbor is making pipe bombs and theyve got them all over the place. The mothers in the apartment, other people, his friend was buying him rifles. Nobody was reporting that. The Muslim community has to help us, because without the Muslim community, we would have to get very tough and much tougher.”
If this fact picture were context to drug smuggling, sex-crimes, burglary rings, bank robberies or other crimes, who in his right mind would allow this endemic and intrinsic ignorance to continue? In fact, such deliberate ignorance would be considered criminal negligence in a court of law.
That’s your problem, William. FACTS. Not nonsensical ranting like this Nintzel stooge.
I’d also like to add that all but one of these countries completely bans (permanently, not temporarily) Israeli citizens from ever entering their country. Some of them even ban anyone who has an Israeli stamp or visa in their passport from entering their country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_passport
Here is the irony to think about. Neither side will let it die.The political pettiness and tit for tat mentality is exactly what started all the killing in the Middle East in OT times.
The Democrats are using the excuse that they are doing what their constituents want. They said they get 100s of phone calls telling them to boycott the inauguration, to be a no show at hearings and oppose the legally elected government at every opportunity.
Registered voters that voted in the last election? How many phone calls did they e verify? Or even log a name? Was it also a popular majority of all voters? We know they did nothing of the sort. Character assassination by accusation and insinuation.
Thus creating a new political term. Vote whore. These elected leaders are waiting to be told…. how to lead.
They never had a clue. Those were wasted votes. Now transfer that process to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
See WHY she lost? She is not a leader. Americans figured it out. CA and NY haven’t and probably won’t.
“Trump takes his first stab at a Muslim ban.”
And the author takes another cheap uneducated swipe at Trump.
Or is it by design? No…he forgot the gun reference. Knives don’t cut it.
This will curl your hair. Imagine – at five years of age – and we expect to assimilate these people!
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/f…
The society that allows/encourages this barbarism cannot exist in the United States. This was a huge problem in a London area called Rotherham (sp) and police were not allowed to investigate. This alone is good reason for a pause-to-think in Immigration policies.
Americans were asked if they wanted Clinton or trump based on their vision. The clear choice was Trump. Now let’s support him.
When asked what they wanted, 3 million more Americans voted for Hillary than for Trump
Trump won because of the electoral college’s vision, not the 75% or so of America that didn’t vote for the Orange Overlord.
I believe you’re letting the alternative facts fool you.
To quit paying … alternative facts, ever wondered why Democrats/Liberals love Illegal Immigration?
As of 11/30/16 three anti-voter fraud organizations agreed with Trump about Illegals voting.
1) On November 11th Gregg Phillips of VoteStand and JumpVote reported that more than 3 million non-citizens had illegally voted in the election (and the vast majority of those would have voted for Hillary Clinton).
Completed analysis of database of 180 million voter registrations – Number of non-citizen votes exceeds 3 million. Consulting legal team Gregg Phillips (@JumpVote)
He reiterated the claim on the 13th. We have verified more than three million votes cast by non-citizens. We are joining .@TrueTheVote to initiate legal action. #unrigged Gregg Phillips (@JumpVote)
2) The folks at InfoWars added their analysis to Phillips numbers:
Virtually all of the votes cast by 3 million illegal immigrants are likely to have been for Hillary Clinton, meaning Trump might have won the popular vote when this number is taken into account.
Vote fraud using ballots cast in the name of dead people and illegal alien voters was a huge concern before the election. On the morning of the election there were 4 million dead people on U.S. voter rolls.
3) Now the group True the Vote is adding its voice to the chorus decrying the rampant voter fraud in American elections. True the Vote absolutely supports President-elect Trumps recent comment about the impact of illegal voting, as reflected in the national popular vote. We are still collecting data and will be for several months, but our intent is to publish a comprehensive study on the significant impact of illegal voting in all of its many forms and begin a national discussion on how voters, states, and the Trump Administration can best address this growing problem.
True the Vote (TTV) is an IRS-designated 501(C3) voters rights organization, founded to inspire and equip voters for involvement at every stage of our electoral process. TTV empowers organizations and individuals across the nation to actively protect the rights of legitimate voters, regardless of their political party affiliation.
http://www.truethevote.org.
http://constitution.com/
https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-ne…
http://tv.infowars.com/index/channel/categ…
W. Heuisler:
At least you’re not wasting your time threatening Ron Barber anymore.
You big man you.
Remember Bowling Green!
They are organizing: Superbowl protests
DIVERSE GROUPS
The players mostly ducked and dodged the questions. The local protests, by contrast, are eager to tackle those issues head on and are expected to exhibit notable diversity.
Groups and community members involved thus far include members of the following groups: Black Lives Matter, socialists, abolitionists, communists, native Americans, Muslims, Jews, Hispanics, LGBT community members and the local Democratic party. Also planning to be on the scene: Opponents of circumcision. For real.
We are seeing the petty differences between our groups matter less than what we agree on, said Amy Zachmeyer, lead organizer for the Houston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/super/2017/02/02/super-bowl-2017-protesters-president-donald-trump-houston/97421790/
They met Tuesday night and established a communication system to avoid …I don’t know, would you say arrest?
60,000 NFL fans spilling into the street and half of them will already be &*%%ed off? This is going to be interesting.
Everything is bigger in TX.
Muslims are not Mexicans.
When I read (NYT with interviews/quotes) that rich California farmers who voted for Trump are losing their workers I have trouble matching politics with having food on the table: you cannot pay Americans enough to get out in those fields.
There is a need for vigilance, not threats and violence, implied or actual.
There is a need for steady leadership, not strange Twitter revenge rants threatening our legal system.
How long can anyone maintain this pace in what could be the most stressful job in the world??
When this president melts down, we could all be in for a very rough ride.
AS the left celebrates the 9th Circuit decision, be reminded that their decisions are overturned over 80% of the time. Is it a justice court or a political arm of the democratic party?
When you need a heart transplant pick a doctor with an 80% failure rate.
Would you?
Just like there is no vote fraud:
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/02/09/grand-prairie-woman-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison-for-voter-fraud/
Voter fraud convictions are popping up all over the country. Why couldn’t Obama find them?
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-02-10/urbana-man-charged-living-voting-us-illegally.html
Even a rose bush can understand WHY Trump keeps going after politicians (both parties), celebrities, reporters, congress (both houses) and, sooner or later, other world leaders. It must really feel good. But there is something basically bad and even indefensible about constantly challenging the integrity of our entire legal system, threatening specific judges and intentionally prejudicing court cases long before actual decisions are made. It pushes the whole process behind police arrests and jury trials into a constitutional red zone, less access to justice for most of us and more abuse and disrespect by felons and crooks and anyone up for gaming the system.
“challenging the integrity of our entire legal system?”
I did not hear that. He said he would take it to the Supreme Court if necessary. Is that not accessing our nations legal system?
” threatening specific judges and intentionally prejudicing court cases long before actual decisions are made.”
I heard him say “so called judge” regarding the Ninth Circuit Court. And that is true as 80% of his opinions are over ruled as unconstitutional. I have to wonder why Obama let that train wreck continue. But that’s exactly why WA state filed…so they could get the wacky courts decision first and attempt to bias other jurisdictions.
Besides the question of intentionally prejudicing courts…That court itself has a documented history of not being in line with the law. They begin from a position of prejudice.
The humans are at it again.
Yes, the entire legal system. Respect starts at the top, not at our level. Trump has been shouting down judges and ridiculing decisions for years. Defend Trump all you want, but he has no keen legal mind, just self-interest. And, due to his appointment authority, he can now test the integrity of the system and cause trouble from initial action upwards as appeals rise to the top (which he also will be able to appoint). There has as yet been no indication that Trump will not continue to harass judges and call for rulings in his favor before the judges can carefully and correctly decide the merits. We can hope they all stay independent, but the system is already suspect due to you-know-who.
Don’t usually send links, but this new one from AP is called “Trump’s tweets could make life tough for federal lawyers “.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/tru…