Post-election Political Ponderings - Part II
One of the major promises of the Trump campaign was to deport illegal immigrants. In the early stages of the campaign he made specious claims that the amounts of money saved on government services provided to those here illegally. Now's he's the President-Elect and that raises the question of what he can do to implement that promise.
It is not practical to try to deport the millions of people here illegally. Under the Obama Administration's administration of immigration policy, there is a two to three year backlog of cases winding their way through the legal system. Cases where thousands, rather than millions are facing deportation. So without a major increase in legal resources to process the cases that would result from any attempt to deport all of those here illegally would take dozens, maybe hundreds of years.
I listened to a law professor who is an expert in immigration law on the radio yesterday. He explained that the rights of due process for those here illegally are set forth under existing federal law. He also claimed that President Trump cannot alter that process by issuing any executive orders.
That doesn't mean he can't increase the number of deportations taking place. He can. He can also rescind the Dream Act executive order. Both actions will make life more difficult for those here illegally.
But what could be a more effective, and less costly strategy is available to the President-Elect. He could press Congress to make the E-Verify program mandatory. He can mandate more stringent enforcement of employment law. Employers who fail to carry out their responsibilities under the current laws could be pursued and fined large amounts for failure to comply. If employers will not hire those here illegally, they may well self-deport. It would certainly be cheaper and easier than spending billions to try to deport them.
* * *
There is a petition online asking that President Obama make an appointment to the Supreme Court before his term in office ends.
Not going to happen.
The Senate will not recess long enough for the President to make such an appointment. But even if they did and President Obama made a recess appointment, the Senate would have to confirm the appointment once they were back in session. That won't happen.
Perhaps the energy being expended on futile pursuits would be better spent if it were redirected into directions that could actually accomplish something.
* * *
When I wrote about the apparent rise of hatred in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory this past Tuesday, I warned that anecdotes about these incidents needed to be taken with a grain of salt because it was possible people might make up stories.
Turns out I was right. A female student at the University of Lousiana-Lafayette has now admitted that she made up a story about being robbed by a man wearing a Trump hat. She is facing charges of making a false police report.
Why would she do this? Only she can answer. She's not talking.
False stories of hate are very counter-productive. They reduce the import and meaning of the true stories.
* * *
Here is an interesting chart:
It will be even more interesting when the totals for the 2016 election are finalized, as there are millions of uncounted votes.
At present this chart makes it appear that the number of Democrats who turned out for the 2016 election dropped off significantly since the peak reached in 2008. It could be a drop-off of more than 10% over that year's totals.
What makes these numbers even more meaningful is that the U.S. population has increased by over 5% since 2008. With a much larger population how did the raw number of Democratic voters decrease? Did the number of Republicans who voted actually go up with the Democratic numbers went down?
Did Donald Trump's hammering home of the "Crooked Hillary" label resonate with voters who might have chosen to stay home as a result? Did Hillary fail to get the votes of Bernie Sanders' supporters after the nomination was denied him by chicanery on the part of the DNC leadership? These are all questions that need to be explored and analyzed.
It is not practical to try to deport the millions of people here illegally. Under the Obama Administration's administration of immigration policy, there is a two to three year backlog of cases winding their way through the legal system. Cases where thousands, rather than millions are facing deportation. So without a major increase in legal resources to process the cases that would result from any attempt to deport all of those here illegally would take dozens, maybe hundreds of years.
I listened to a law professor who is an expert in immigration law on the radio yesterday. He explained that the rights of due process for those here illegally are set forth under existing federal law. He also claimed that President Trump cannot alter that process by issuing any executive orders.
That doesn't mean he can't increase the number of deportations taking place. He can. He can also rescind the Dream Act executive order. Both actions will make life more difficult for those here illegally.
But what could be a more effective, and less costly strategy is available to the President-Elect. He could press Congress to make the E-Verify program mandatory. He can mandate more stringent enforcement of employment law. Employers who fail to carry out their responsibilities under the current laws could be pursued and fined large amounts for failure to comply. If employers will not hire those here illegally, they may well self-deport. It would certainly be cheaper and easier than spending billions to try to deport them.
* * *
There is a petition online asking that President Obama make an appointment to the Supreme Court before his term in office ends.
Not going to happen.
The Senate will not recess long enough for the President to make such an appointment. But even if they did and President Obama made a recess appointment, the Senate would have to confirm the appointment once they were back in session. That won't happen.
Perhaps the energy being expended on futile pursuits would be better spent if it were redirected into directions that could actually accomplish something.
* * *
When I wrote about the apparent rise of hatred in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory this past Tuesday, I warned that anecdotes about these incidents needed to be taken with a grain of salt because it was possible people might make up stories.
Turns out I was right. A female student at the University of Lousiana-Lafayette has now admitted that she made up a story about being robbed by a man wearing a Trump hat. She is facing charges of making a false police report.
Why would she do this? Only she can answer. She's not talking.
False stories of hate are very counter-productive. They reduce the import and meaning of the true stories.
* * *
Here is an interesting chart:
It will be even more interesting when the totals for the 2016 election are finalized, as there are millions of uncounted votes.
At present this chart makes it appear that the number of Democrats who turned out for the 2016 election dropped off significantly since the peak reached in 2008. It could be a drop-off of more than 10% over that year's totals.
What makes these numbers even more meaningful is that the U.S. population has increased by over 5% since 2008. With a much larger population how did the raw number of Democratic voters decrease? Did the number of Republicans who voted actually go up with the Democratic numbers went down?
Did Donald Trump's hammering home of the "Crooked Hillary" label resonate with voters who might have chosen to stay home as a result? Did Hillary fail to get the votes of Bernie Sanders' supporters after the nomination was denied him by chicanery on the part of the DNC leadership? These are all questions that need to be explored and analyzed.
posted by me at 8:36 AM
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