Donald Trump Strikes a Nerve

Businessman and celebrity Donald Trump, in his nearly hour-long, teleprompter-less announcement of his GOP presidential candidacy, said: “The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. … When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

His crude and over-the-top comment instantly made him the most hated white man since Donald Sterling. Never mind that Trump hit on a topic the media are loath to admit: our borders remain porous.

The backlash against Trump was fierce. NBC, which carried Trump’s show, “The Apprentice,” ended their relationship with him. Univision dropped Trump’s Miss USA pageant. ESPN moved a golf tournament from a Trump-owned resort to another site. Macy’s dropped Trump’s menswear line. And New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “We are reviewing Trump contracts with the city.” For New York City, the Trump organization runs a carousel, an ice-skating rink and a golf course.

Former New York governor and Republican presidential candidate George Pataki also attacked Trump. Pataki sent a letter to about a dozen rivals for the GOP nomination urging them to denounce Trump.

Actress America “Ugly Betty” Ferrera said: “I heard what you said about the kind of people you think Latino immigrants are — people with problems, who bring drugs, crime and rape to America. While your comments are incredibly ignorant and racist, I don’t want to spend my time chastising you. I’ll leave that to your business partners like Univision and NBC, who have the power to scold you where it hurts. Instead, I’m writing to say thank you! You see, what you just did with your straight talk was send more Latino voters to the polls than several registration rallies combined!”

But polls show most Americans believe that our borders are not only porous — but are porous (SET ITAL) by design (END ITAL). According to a January Rasmussen poll: “Most U.S. voters think the Mexican government doesn’t do enough to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking and favor stopping foreign aid to our southern neighbor. … Just 14 percent of likely U.S. voters think the Mexican government wants to stop its citizens from illegally entering the United States. … Fifty-five percent say Mexico is not interested in stopping illegal immigration.”

Within days of Trump’s comments, two women, one in Texas and one in California, were murdered by illegal aliens. In the case of the California woman, she was out on a walk with her father in a popular tourist area of San Francisco. She was shot and killed by an illegal alien who had been previously deported five times and convicted of felonies seven times, but was nevertheless out, free and on the streets. Immigration and Customs Enforcement claims they placed a detainer order on the illegal alien.

But San Francisco is a so-called “sanctuary city,” meaning that unless the feds have a court order or warrant demanding that the local authorities turn over a violent offender, the ICE detainer order gets ignored. According to a local ABC news affiliate, the confessed killer admitted during an interview that he picked San Francisco precisely (SET ITAL) because (END ITAL) it is a “sanctuary city.”

Within hours of the California killing, a Laredo, Texas, woman was beaten to death with a hammer by her illegal-alien husband. He too, had been previously deported — four times — and the Laredo police admit that they’d had three violent encounters with the illegal alien and his wife. Yet the PD never notified border patrol.

Recall the nearly 60,000 unaccompanied alien children — UACs — that came into the country over our southwest border last year. According to ICE records, nearly 98 percent of the kids are placed with extended family, guardians or foster caregivers in this country, and given a notice to appear before an immigration judge at a future date. As many as 90 percent of the kids never show up. And while the flood of last year has diminished, UACs still come.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that illegal immigration costs Californians $25 billion per year, when you include the cost of educating children of illegal aliens.

Peter Kirsanow, a black member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said the commission studied the impact of illegal immigration on urban employment. He said that all commission members — conservatives, moderates and liberals — agreed that porous borders especially threaten the job prospects of those living in urban America. He sent a letter to Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, then head of the Congressional Black Caucus, to ask why little is being done about it. He never heard back.

While Trump unfairly maligned all Mexican illegal aliens, he nevertheless articulates what the polls show: most Americans believe that illegal immigration threatens prosperity and that it changes the American electorate to create more Democrats.

COPYRIGHT 2015 LAURENCE A. ELDER

Photo credit: “Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore 3” by Gage Skidmore. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Larry Elder is a best-selling author and radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder.