I think Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies are terrible, cynical, ineffective and a giant waste of money. Here is photographic evidence that I oppose those policies (among others):
This could have been avoided if Congress would just do its job. For instance, the proposed 2007 bill would have provided a path to citizenship for many people while also increasing border enforcement. No bill is perfect, but Congress instead has done nothing to fix real immigration problems because it’s been more useful to keep it a live issue. Shamefully both parties are content to allow successive presidents to craft their own policies via executive order, which side steps one leg of the checks and balances created by the Constitution.
Thankfully we still have the courts and Americans generally do not agree with Trump’s policies on immigration. Or the economy or trade or inflation.
Yesterday my wife and I went down to San Diego to see a production of All’s Well That Ends Well. San Diego is a Navy town and tends to lean Republican. As we sat eating dinner on the patio at Prado we watched people from all over the world enjoying one of America’s great city parks. The fact is, America isn’t what our headlines tell you.
America isn’t perfect, but we are slowly (too slowly, perhaps) living up to the promise of the the Declaration signed 249 years ago:
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
- that all [people] are created equal,
- that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
- that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among [Humanity], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
- that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The truth is, Americans believe these things still. Our disagreements largely stem from how to go about securing these rights. Our Form of Government isn’t perfect, but I believe it continues to be the best Form devised to produce Safety and Happiness.
Happy 4th!