Border Battles, Elites vs. The People, Good News

Monday, November 26, 2018

Border Battles
 
Late yesterday hundreds of mostly young men from Central America rushed the border at the San Diego crossing.  They threw rocks and bottles at Border Patrol agents.  They were pushed back with a volley of tear gas and other non-lethal crowd control methods. 
 
The border crossing was immediately shutdown as intelligence suggested thousands of migrants planned to flood the traffic lanes to force their way into the United States.
 
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen issued a statement condemning the violence and vowing a strong response.  She said:
 
"[The Trump Administration] will not tolerate this type of lawlessness and will not hesitate to shut down ports of entry for security and public safety reasons. We will also seek to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who destroys federal property, endangers our frontline operators, or violates our nation's sovereignty." 
 
Thinking about these scenes, it is obvious that virtually everything Big Media said about the caravan during the closing weeks of the campaign was a lie or just plain wrong.  All three major networks plus CNN and MSNBC and almost every major newspaper in the country was spreading fake news and propaganda.
 

  • Many talking heads have claimed that there is nothing particularly unusual about the caravan.  Yet Border Patrol officials are reporting record levels of detentions.  (Here and here.) 
  • They said the caravan could never walk all the way to the border.  Well, they were right about that.  A good part of the distance was covered by trucks and buses.  (By the way, don't accuse George Soros of having anything to do with it or the left will accuse you of anti-Semitism.)
  • Some pundits said that illegally entering the U.S. isn't really a crime.  Well, how about throwing bottles and rocks at Border Patrol agents?  Is that a crime? 
  • They said there was no proof of criminals in the caravan.  At least 500 have been identified.
  • They said the migrants were just fleeing gang violence.  There are gang members in the caravan.  And there are people from other countries far away from Central America, including Bangladesh.

 
There was only one prominent person who has been right about the migrant convoy all along -- Donald Trump.
 
 
 
Elites vs. The People
 
One commentator this morning said that the scene at the border was bad but the migrants are very frustrated with the slow pace of the asylum process.  That may be true, but it's no excuse for violence or for entering the country illegally.
 
I know millions of Americans are frustrated that we are safeguarding the borders of countries all over the world while we have failed to safeguard our own borders. 
 
As a result, there are millions of illegal immigrants living here (we have no clue as to how many and progressives don't want us to even try to find out), costing taxpayers billions of dollars and massively changing the demographics of the country.  No one ever voted for such a radical policy.
 
If there had been a referendum 30 or 40 years ago on open borders, I have no doubt that it would have failed by a wide margin.  Even today, the open borders agenda is widely unpopular.  Two recent polls (here and here) found that voters see illegal immigration is the number one problem confronting the country. 
 
President Trump is trying everything he can think of to humanely secure the border, but everything he does is blocked by left-wing judges and politicians who are unwilling to fund a border wall.
 
 
 
Speaking Of Judges. . .
 
After U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar blocked President Trump's asylum order last week, the president declared, "This was an Obama judge. . .  We will win that case in the Supreme Court of the United States." 
 
I share the president's frustration with left-wing judges, and I hope he is right about winning at the Supreme Court.
 
Sadly, one person who disagreed with the president was Chief Justice John Roberts.  In reaction to the president's remarks, Roberts issued a statement, saying:
 
"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.  What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them."
 
I don't know what is worse -- if Roberts actually believes that nonsense or if he thinks the American people are stupid enough to believe it.
 
We've had a soft conservative majority on the Supreme Court for several years.  I use the term "soft" because every once in a while someone like Roberts will do something bizarre like upholding Obamacare. 
 
At the same time, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is dominated by Democrat appointees, has been incredibly liberal.  For many years, the "Nutty Ninth" or the "Ninth Circus" has been the most overturned circuit by the Supreme Court. 
 
Of course ideology matters!  What on earth did Roberts think was going on in Washington last month when left-wing mobs were trying to stop the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh?
 
If Chief Justice Roberts really doesn't understand that the left has been using the courts as a cudgel in the culture wars to force massive social change on the American people, I am at loss for words. 
 
 
 
Good News
 
I am pleased to report that independent abortion facilities are closing at "an unprecedented rate."  That's according to the latest report from the Abortion Care Network.
 
While Planned Parenthood is the largest single abortion provider in the country, independent clinics perform approximately 60% of the abortions in America.  Since 2012, 28% of independent clinics have closed.  So far this year, 11 independent clinics have shut down.
 
In addition, the latest abortion statistics (which are flawed for a variety of reasons) suggest that the total number of abortions performed in 2015 fell to a post-Roe v. Wade low of just over 638,000.
 
Again, these numbers are grossly underreported, and 638,000 abortions only shows that we have a long way to go before every innocent child is welcomed into the world and protected by the law.  But at least both trends are moving in the right direction. 
 
Commonsense pro-life laws approved at the state level have played a significant role in closing many abortion clinics and reducing the total number of abortions.
 
As a result of the November elections, we will be hard-pressed to protect these gains.  That is just one reason why your continued support for our work is so important.