Month: June 2018

With the sudden interest of the national media in the families-separated-at-border storyline, the American immigration narrative is currently wound up in what’s happening to children caught crossing illegally with their families on the southern border.

But a look at a town in northeastern Pennsylvania, where immigrant families staying together have completely overhauled the population and atmosphere might have more lessons for country in the long term.

And they don’t paint the rosy picture immigration activists are trying to sell the American public.

During the 2016 campaign, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and surrounding Luzerne County were occasionally in the national news because of the power of immigration as an issue. In October, The New York Times analyzed the area under the headline: “In a City Built by Immigrants, Immigration Is the Defining Issue.”

After Donald Trump’s unlikely victory in November, Newsweek published a December piece headlined, “Why did Donald Trump win? Just Visit Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.”

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The premise still holds.

A lengthy piece published last week by the City Journal, a quarterly magazine of the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, is headlined “Chain Migration Comes to Hazleton.”

It describes how in less than 20 years – barely the space of a generation – a town with a population of 25,000 has “been radically transformed since the early 2000s by secondary chain migration, principally driven by Dominicans — immigrants, both legal and illegal, as well as second- and third-generation citizens arriving from the New York metropolitan area.”

The numbers tell the story:

  In 2000, Hispanics made up less than 5 percent of Hazleton’s population; they now account for more than 50 percent. Such rapid and dramatic demographic shifts are rare in U.S. cities. For Hazleton, the consequences have been profound, and the city is struggling to cope.”

That might be something of an understatement.

The changing demographics have changed the physical appearance of the Luzerne County town, which was incorporated as a borough in 1857 and became a city in 1891.

City Journal reported:

  Vinyl banners with loud graphics soon came to dominate the facades of sober nineteenth-century retail buildings. Pentecostal and evangelical congregations now fill former Catholic and Protestant churches. Blocks of duplex homes, uniformly encased with aluminum siding, crowd with families living in Section 8 housing or in subdivided rental units.

RELATED: Report: Illegal Immigrant Children Strangely Know Very Little About ‘Parents’

The public school system has been radically altered:

  In 2007, the district was 28 percent Hispanic and 69 percent non-Hispanic white. As of 2014, the district was 45 percent Hispanic and 51 percent non-Hispanic white… But Hazleton’s budget can’t keep pace with all the new arrivals, many of whom need special services. A district that had need for only one ESL teacher in the 1990s, for example, now has 2,298 English-language learners, nearly 20 percent of its student body; more than half the student body today live in low-income households. By 2017, the school district—encompassing over 250 square miles of southern Luzerne County, northern Schuylkill County, and western Carbon County—faced a $6 million deficit, in part driven by the demographic change.

And then there’s crime. As the City Journal reported, the town’s location near the intersection of Interstates 80 and 81 makes it an “ideal location” for cocaine and heroin operations run by drug rings dominated by immigrants from the Dominican Republic or their families.

When the town eventually tried to take action, it ended up on the losing end of a court case that went all the way to the Supreme Court (and also made Hazleton a national headline name for a time).

As the City Journal reported:

  For many Hazletonians, the city reached a grim tipping point in 2006, when two illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic were charged with murdering a 29-year-old father of three. The killing shocked the community. Hazleton’s then-mayor, Lou Barletta, responded by introducing an ordinance, soon passed by the city council: the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which fined and penalized employers and landlords for hiring and renting to illegal immigrants. The ACLU challenged the act, and the fight went to the Supreme Court. In 2014, the Court declined to review two federal appellate decisions that struck down the measure. The following year, a U.S. district court judge ruled that Hazleton had to pay $1.4 million to the attorneys who had sued the city over the act. The judge’s order was devastating for a cash-strapped city struggling to provide adequate services to its growing Hispanic population.

None of that is good news for the Democrat Party, or activists on the side of unchecked immigration.

And there’s a reason Donald Trump won Luzerne County with 77 percent of the vote, according to the City Journal.

However, Hazleton shouldn’t be seen as an example of why immigration should be opposed as a rule. One thing the liberals are right about is that immigrants have always played a key part of building the United States.

What Hazleton does show is the danger of unchecked immigration, based solely or even largely on the “chain” of relations to those immigrants who are accepted into the country.

America should be a nation that welcomes immigrants who are willing to assimilate into the country as a whole, not bunker themselves in ethnic enclaves for generations.

While liberals try to stage a tear-jerking soap opera about separating families in the Southwest part of the country, it might behoove the rest of us to look at a town in northeastern Pennsylvania for a bit, like Fox News host Tucker Carlson did in March.

Unchecked, chain immigration is not always a pretty picture.

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There is no denying that the liberal media have declared all-out war against the presidency of Donald Trump since before he even took office.

That “war” is evidenced by an almost weekly — sometimes near-daily — episodic freakout by purportedly unbiased “journalists” who set their hair on fire, crank the volume up to 11 and cry out in progressive leftist anguish over the latest executive action, policy implementation or even random tweet from Trump.

The latest absolute, end-of-the-world outrage that has supposedly neutral reporters comparing Trump and his supporters to Hitler and the Nazis — again — is the “zero tolerance” policy at the border with regard to illegal immigration, which has the unfortunate side effect of children being temporarily separated from their illegal immigrant parents while the parents are prosecuted for illegal entry or have their asylum claims adjudicated.

But if those liberal reporters thought their constant haranguing of Trump and skewed reports of the situation — which conveniently overlook similar situations under former President Barack Obama’s administration — would have a negative effect on Trump’s approval rating, they thought wrong, according to The Daily Caller.

GALLUP: Donald Trump’s job approval rating rises to 45%, tied for the highest of his presidency (which was January 2017); disapproval falls to 50%. pic.twitter.com/2O2V3Pb4vF

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 18, 2018

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Despite the constant drumbeat of negativity from the media — or perhaps because of it, ironically — the president’s approval rating has climbed to the highest height it has ever been, tied with the day he first took office, in the latest weekly tracking poll from Gallup.

That poll from Gallup showed that Trump’s approval rating as of June 17 was 45 percent, with a disapproval rating of 50 percent. For some perspective, consider that roughly three weeks prior, May 27, Trump’s approval sat at 40 percent while his disapproval rating was at 55 percent.

Interestingly, the above tweet from Bloomberg reporter Sahil Kapur also included the revelation from Gallup that 38 percent of Americans are satisfied with the current path the United States is on under Trump, the highest rating for that particular question in 12 years.

Of course, some liberals will scoff dismissively at Trump’s sub-50 percent approval, but in doing so they again display their historical and partisan ignorance of the striking similarities between Trump and his predecessors in spite of the vastly different media coverage they have received.

Business Insider senior political reporter Allan Smith noted on Twitter that Trump’s 45 percent approval on Day 513 of his presidency was essentially tied with Obama’s approval on a similar date, and was actually one point higher than former President Bill Clinton’s approval rating at the same time.

Trump is at 45% on day 513 of his presidency

Obama was at 45% on day 523 of his presidency

Clinton was at 44% on day 524 of his presidency https://t.co/NZX88n1K5U

— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) June 18, 2018

To be sure, there are many factors at play when it comes to American voters approving or disapproving of the current president, such as the economy, jobs, foreign policy and wars.

That said, one would assume Trump’s numbers would be much lower when considering the constant negative coverage Trump receives in spite of ample good news with regard to the above issues — here’s looking at you, potential peace and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula.

In actuality, Trump’s approval numbers would be even higher than they are were he to receive even neutral media coverage, let alone positive coverage of his accomplishments instead of incessant attacks.

RELATED: More Americans Satisfied with Direction of Country Under Trump Than Under Obama

The truth is, partisan hack “journalists” can’t stand the fact that Trump is “winning” on many of the issues he campaigned on, and the American people are increasingly taking note of that reality, no matter how negatively his actions are portrayed.

As dismal as it can sometimes seem on a day-to-day basis, we can only encourage the liberal media to keep up with their negative drumbeat against Trump as it appears to be backfiring mightily on them and their Democrat allies in favor of Trump’s growing popularity.

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The fire hose of fake news from the establishment media this week on the issue of illegal immigrant families separated at the border is designed to mislead the American people — and to distract from Trump’s recent successes.

Here are the facts — 13 truths the media do not want you to know about President Trump’s legal, humane, and moral handling of adults and children who enter our country illegally.

1. Trump Is Only Enforcing the Law

The establishment media’s manufactured narrative about the necessary and moral separation of illegal alien parents from their children is designed with the specific purpose of spreading the fake news that, only as a means to be cruel,  President Trump is somehow making all of this up as he goes along.

In truth, Trump is only complying with and enforcing the law, which is his constitutional duty and responsibility.

2. Trump’s Only Choice Is to Separate Illegal Alien Families

When an illegal alien crosses the border into the U.S., he is a lawbreaker, and, like any lawbreaker (including American citizens), he is put into the criminal justice system.

This is the law.

Obviously, when an illegal alien is in custody, he is housed in an adult detention center. For obvious reasons, it would be illegal for Trump to “reunite” this family by allowing children to live in adult detention centers.

Keep in mind that when we are this early in the process, we do not even know if this is a real family unit. It is not uncommon for illegal aliens (including criminals) to pretend the children they are traveling with are their own. They do so in the hope this special family status will result in them being released (this madness is known as “catch and release”) into America with nothing more than a court date — a date many never show for, most especially those with criminal intent.

And so, while the illegal adult is held in an adult detention center, the migrant child is cared for in shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Generally, the adult illegal is processed quickly, sentenced to time served, and the family is quickly reunited during the deportation process.

In other words, in order to keep the family unit together, we can either put children in adult detention centers (unthinkable), put adults in child detention centers (unthinkable), or hold no one, which means “catch and release,” which means letting even more illegal immigrants loose to live in our country illegally.

The only moral and legal option here is to temporarily separate families while the criminal justice system runs its course.

3. The Left Wants Illegal Aliens to Enjoy Privileges Denied to American Citizens

If an American citizen breaks the law and is funneled into the justice system, he is separated from his family and children. This American citizen is not allowed to keep his family with him in a detention center.

Once again, our media want illegal aliens to enjoy special rights and privileges American citizens do not enjoy.

One more point…

These migrants are guilty of walking minor children through miles and miles of desert with the intent of committing a crime (crossing a border illegally).

If you or I walked a child through miles and miles of desert with the intent of committing a crime, child protective services would take our children away (and should).

4. Asylum Seekers Not Breaking the Law are Not Being Separated

If you cross the border illegally and claim asylum, you are still a lawbreaker. Regardless of your intent, crossing the border illegally automatically puts you in the criminal justice system, where you will obviously be separated from family.

These asylum seekers are choosing to break the law, are choosing to be separated from family.

Asylum seekers who respect our laws, by turning themselves in at legal points of entry, are not being separated. Over-crowding due to the abuse of this policy might eventually make this impossible, but it is up to Congress to allocate more funds.

5. Trump Is Correct About the Loophole

In 1997, a consent decree called the Flores Settlement made it illegal for America to hold migrant children for longer than 20 days. Meaning, in order to keep the family together after 20 days of detention, we can either reunite the family by letting them loose to live illegally in America, or we can keep the parent in detention and place the child in a foster home or with a relative who lives in America.

Trump is wisely choosing to do the latter (for a number of moral reasons I will explain later).

A case involving an illegal border crosser not seeking asylum is usually adjudicated before the 20 days are up, which means the family unit is reunited during deportation and no foster care is needed.  This, obviously, is the best case scenario.

Those who cross the border illegally and then claim asylum status (an important distinction from asylum seekers who obey the law) are another story, because the asylum process almost always exceeds the 20 days, and this is the law the Trump administration wants changed.

By speeding up the asylum process, the family unit can be reunited faster, either in the deportation process (if asylum is not granted — and this process is frequently abused) or in the resettlement process (if asylum is granted).

Another option is to end the 20-day limit so foster care does not become necessary. Parent and child can remain in the detention centers until the asylum process is settled.

6. “Reuniting” Families Would Be a Disaster for Countless Children

Again, the only way to “keep a family together” is to allow illegals to pour into our country.

This policy would be a total disaster, especially for the children.

If word gets out that America automatically allows illegal border crossers with small children loose into America just because they have minor children, this would only further incentivize those who engage in the child abuse of dragging children along on the unbelievably dangerous trek across the border — or, even worse, both exploiting them for catch-and-release and then trafficking them after making it into the country.

No one who truly cares about these children wants to further incentivize that kind of abuse.

7. Obama and Democrats Incentivized This ‘Family Separation’

Until Obama came along, illegal border crossings primarily involved young, single men. Obama incentivized the idea of dragging minor children along on this dangerous journey (where many children are sexually assaulted) through his policy of  “catch and release.”

Once word got out that illegals with small children would be let loose into America, the number of children crossing the border exploded.

Again, the last thing decent people want is for the American government to further incentivize the cruel act of bringing small children along on this brutal trip across the border, which is exactly what Trump is hoping to stop with his zero tolerance policy.

8. Barack Obama Separated Illegal Alien Families, Media Said Nothing

Under Obama, when illegal border crossers were put into the criminal justice system, families were indeed separated. Obama, of course, rarely prosecuted, even though the law calls for it.

Neither Democrats nor the media cared about family separation then, which proves this manufactured and coordinated uproar is only about politics.

Political journalism needs a bit of housecleaning on this child border crisis. I’ll start. It was going on during the Obama years in large numbers. I never wrote about it. Was completely unaware, in large part because few reporters were interested enough to create critical mass.

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) June 18, 2018

To my colleagues out there chasing Pulitzers over this: Why didn’t today’s critical mass form when we were looking at unaccompanied minors by the tens of thousands in 2014. Why didn’t those kids matter as much as these? Few of us chased those stories down with any vigor.

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) June 18, 2018

The only reason the media suddenly came to care about family separation is as a means to fabricate a controversy, as a tactic to distract voters from three legitimate news stories from last week that benefit Trump: 1) our economy is booming,  2) Trump had a successful summit with North Korea, and 3) the Inspector General report exposed James Comey’s FBI as a swamp of corruption out to exonerate Hillary Clinton and frame Trump.

9. IMPORTANT: The ONLY Way to Unite Families Is to Release Them into America

Obviously, we cannot have children living in adult detention centers. Obviously, we cannot have adults living in child detention centers. Therefore, the only way to “reunite” these families is to release these illegals into our country.

The media will not tell you this because the media do not want you to know that flooding America with non-citizens is their true agenda. The rich and powerful love to exploit and abuse these individuals, as they can leverage their immigration status for illegally low wages, and politicians are salivating at the chance to bestow voting rights on them — and thus entrench their power.

But when you hear the media call for these families to be reunited, remember that is coded language that means only one thing: releasing illegal aliens into our country with nothing more than a court summons.

10. Incentivizing the Act of Bringing Minor Children Across the Border Is Evil

The media do not want to inform Americans of one crucial fact: the dangers inherent in crossing the border from Mexico into America, most especially the dangers faced by minor children.  Sadly, these dangers too often involve sexual abuse.

Decent people who truly care about these children, like President Trump, want to do everything in their power to end this abuse — either by building a wall, or through this zero tolerance policy that will hopefully curb this abusive practice.

Evil people want these children dragged across the border, want this abuse incentivized by “keeping the family unit together,” because  flooding the country with future indebted voters is more important to them than the safety and well-being of small children.

11. Those Who Come to America Legally Face ‘Family Separation’

Many people who come to America legally from other countries are separated from family. A big part of America’s LEGAL immigration policy involves family separation when one or two family members come over before the rest are legally or financially able.

And so, once again, we have the media and Democrats demanding special treatment for illegal immigrants that legal immigrants do not enjoy. Once again we are incentivizing lawbreaking and treating the line-jumpers better than those who follow the rules.

12. “Family Reunification” Is an Invitation to Human Traffickers

Because of “catch and release,” because of this dumb and destructive loophole carved out for families, the number of illegal aliens using children to enter the U.S. increased by 315 percent between October 2017 and February 2018.

Trump understands what is happening and this is why he has moved to a zero tolerance policy.

Anything other than zero tolerance only serves as an incentive for human traffickers and other criminals to use these children as their free pass into America.

Incentivizing such a thing is monstrous:

“If there’s any suspicion that they’re not really truly related to those people, then they will be separated for their own safety,” a chief border agent said of kids who are often recycled by smugglers to get adults into the United States. pic.twitter.com/f3PBT57Q5T

— POLITICO (@politico) June 18, 2018

13. Media Do Not Give a Shit About American Families Separated by Criminal Illegal Aliens

Illegal alien families are choosing to be separated by voluntarily engaging in lawbreaking. These illegal alien families, if they so choose, can stay together, simply by obeying the law.

This is not hard.

Those who do not have a choice in family separation are the legions of American families permanently separated from family members when that family member is killed at the hands of an illegal alien.

As Steve Bannon accurately pointed out over the weekend, “I don’t see the mainstream media and the liberal left embracing the Angel Moms, those people who were permanently separated from their children because of illegal aliens who came over here and committed crimes and killed people. You’re being very selective.”

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

While accepting the Generation Award at Monday’s MTV Movie and TV Awards, actor Chris Pratt told his millennial viewers “God is real,” they have a soul, and they have to take care of it.

Amidst typical MTV fare, such as drag queens, praise for gay sex and digs at Roseanne Barr, Chris Pratt offered a genuinely countercultural message to his mostly young audience, which he condensed into “Nine rules from Chris Pratt.”

1 of 9 rules from @prattprattpratt “Don’t be a ” Congrats on receiving the Generation Award! #MTVAwards pic.twitter.com/IFn87o8Kuk

— MTV (@MTV) June 19, 2018

“This being the generation award I am going to cut to the chase and speak to you, the next generation. I accept the responsibility as your elder, so listen up,” the Hollywood megastar said, before launching into his advice for today’s youth, much of which was overtly Christian.

Number one: breathe. If you don’t, you’ll suffocate.

Number two: You have a soul. Be careful with it.

Number three: Don’t be a turd. If you’re strong, be a protector and if you’re smart, be a humble influencer. Strength and intelligence can be weapons and do not wield them against the weak. That makes you a bully. Be bigger than that.

Number four: When giving a dog medicine, put the medicine in a little piece of hamburger and they won’t even know they’re eating medicine.

Number five: Doesn’t matter what it is, earn it. A good deed, reach out to someone in pain, be of service, it feels good and it’s good for your soul.

Number six: God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you. Believe that. I do.

Number seven: If you have to poop at a party, but you’re embarrassed because you’re going to stink up the bathroom, just do what I do. Lock the door. Sit down, get all the pee out first. Okay? Then, when all the pee’s done, poop-flush-boom. You minimize the amount of time that the poop is touching the air because if you poop first, then it takes you longer to pee and you’re peeing on it, stirring it up and the poop particles create a cloud that goes out and then everyone at the party will know that you pooped. Just trust me, it’s science.

Number eight: Learn to pray. It’s easy and it’s so good for your soul.

Number nine: Nobody is perfect. People are going to tell you you’re perfect just the way you are; you’re not! You are imperfect. You always will be, but there’s a powerful force that designed you that way. And if you’re willing to accept that you will have grace and grace is a gift. Like the freedom we enjoy in this country that grace was paid for with somebody else’s blood. Do not forget it. Don’t take it for granted.

God bless you. Please get home safely.

Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter  Follow @tdwilliamsrome