By Sandy Wells
KABC News
Immigration enforcement remains front and center in American politics since Donald Trump put it there at the start of his campaign for president more than a year ago.
Jessica Vaughn, Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies says the issue has been simmering for years, but there was no major presidential candidate willing to take up the cause of restoring law and order on the southern border.
“Finally, we’re having this public debate about our immigration policy that’s long overdue. I agree with all those folks who thought it was a good day for Donald Trump, both showing that he’s going to talk to Mexico about various issues including trade and immigration, which are linked a little bit. Also, that outstanding speech that he gave later that evening laying out ten things that need to happen to restore balance in our immigration policy, restore integrity, and repair the damage that has occurred under the Obama administration.”
Vaughn says it’s hard for the mainstream media to wrap their collective heads around the immense reservoir of resentment built up over the years by people seeing millions of people flaunt U.S. law and cross the border illegally.
“One of the problems are that the mainstream media are being confronted with facts that they ignored and never reported on, and are now having to confront in their coverage of immigration. Things like the number of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, the public safety impact [and] the effect on America families. It was very moving that Donald Trump had on that stage with him a group of Americans who have paid the ultimate price for the lack of immigration enforcement and lost family members killed by people who shouldn’t have been here to begin with and shouldn’t have been allowed to stay.”
Is the Republican Party doomed because of the “browning of America?” It doesn’t have to be, ” says Vaughn. The Republican brand should not be based on race, but on ideas.
“I don’t buy into this thought that the Republican party is doomed unless it embraces a mass Amnesty and expansion of immigration. Latino and other recent immigrant groups are more concerned with the things that all Americans are concerned with: an economy that works and put the interest of our country first. … What Republicans need to do is find candidates that voters — especially new voters like families of recent immigrants — can identify with. That means bringing more people who look like the electorate into the Republican fold, but that doesn’t mean compromising on the sovereignty of our country and the importance of our immigration laws. The people who are hurt most by our failure to enforce immigration laws are people on the margins of society, and that’s recent legal immigrants, that’s blacks in many cases, and Hispanic workers who have to compete with this endless supply of illegal workers.”
Jessica Vaughn was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning Show.
