Hot Air from the White House

Do Donald Trump’s announced raids against unwelcome migrants from Central America help? His plans pursue a different motive.

Would a large-scale operation to arrest and deport tens of thousands, indeed, millions of foreigners legally required to leave the U.S. deter others from attempting illegal immigration? President Trump is banking on it.

Yet the times are long since over when primarily Mexican adventurers rather casually cheated their way into the country; those in El Salvador being extorted by gangs and fearing for the lives of their children will less easily be deterred. Trump’s former Secretary of Homeland Security had to go because she hesitated to use her tight resources for unprecedented raids – especially since many children of foreigners legally required to leave were born in the U.S. and are U.S. citizens. Are they supposed to remain behind alone?

In this situation, enforcing the law is difficult. It is simply indisputable that it makes no sense to announce raids. Trump, naturally, has difference reasons: on Tuesday he officially began his reelection campaign – but up to today, his faithfully promised border wall remains just made of hot air.