Here is why Trump is doubling down on "mass deportations" as his main pitch in the closing days of the presidential campaign. It is cruel enough to get his voters to turn out. The immigrant issue, as Trump uses it, appeals to the irrationality of emotions held by so many of his followers. Facts and "fix the administrative problems" have no traction with them. Cruelty is the point.They seem quite OK with breaking up families(6.4 million families have both legal and undocumented members), using the military to do it, and sending them to detention camps.
(From a 10/10/24 separate posting reproduced here:)The "Haitians eat pets" hoax, the "FEMA money goes to immigrants" lie, and Venezuelan gangs run Aurora, Colorado BS"(even the GOP Aurora mayor says is a "gross exaggeration") are all part of this pitch, to scare his core racist and immigrant hater voters to turn out to vote. Colorado is giving Trump an appropriate welcome Friday, October 11. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/colorado-governor-senator-representatives-announce-plans-to-slam-trump-hours-before-donald-trump-s-aurora-rally.
Harris, on the other hand, has a long history as DA and AG of following the rule of law and going after immigrant law breakers and gangs. Her solutions are not cruel. The only explanation I can see for wilful ignorance of cruelty or foradvocating cruelty is that cruelty must fulfill some primal sense of satisfaction.85 % percent of the GOP support the concept of mass deportation. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4885895-mass-deportation-immigration-poll/ A much smaller percent of independents and democrats support the concept of mass deportation...but a little more than half of the total electorate also support mass deportations. For 39% of voters, immigration is their top issue, and 54% support mass deportation, but that means many still go along with the concept even if they do not understand the cruelty. How many of them understand what Trump is proposing is cruel and probably cannot be measured by asking a simple question to a pollster if you do or do not support mass deportation.
In case there is any doubt left that cruelty and hatred are the drivers of the Trump base, Trump, JD Vance, and others have whipped up hatred and fear of any brown or black immigrants (no problem with those from Norway), legal or not, because the issue of immigration is a stand-in, a code word, for his core campaign strategy. It is an issue that is also natural for him given his long history of housing discrimination, birtherism, and attacks on the Central Park Five and Charleston, where he called new Nazi tiki torch marchers "fine people on both sides." It was that issue that catapulted him into national political success. He has been using racial hatred before and after he descended on his golden escalator., but particularly on that kickoff event (migrants at southern borders are mostly rapists and murderers, and they are going to adulterate the blood of Americans).. To do that, he has to lie and exaggerate. The lies about the characteristics of immigrants as criminals are ongoing and even shrill in these later 30 days of the campaign. Every statistic available verifies immigrants were less likely to commit crimes than anyone else due to the fear of being caught, jailed, and kicked out of the country (as the law permits) so to make a point, Trump and his spokespersons have to lie and exaggerate.. The prime example was that Haitian migrants were eating Springfield pets, and even his running mate, JD Vance, said he had the right to lie about it if it made a political point. Trump then turned his focus on Aurora, Colorado, that Venezuelan gangs had taken over the city, but called off a visit when the GOP mayor admitted he had exaggerated the problem. And now the lie that FEMA was only going to immigrants in the wake of Hurricane Helene is insulting to anyone on the ground and providing relief who knows better. And those who look to justify their gut feelings of fear and loathing of black and brown people are eager to use, spread, or believe the lies. This is a get-out-the-vote strategy that only appeals to those already supporting Trump since the sorting out of those motivated by racism and hatred has already chosen sides long ago.
Harris provides a non-cruel alternative. Fund better screening of asylum seekers; deny migrants just looking for a better economic opportunity; and if a migrant breaks the law. the law, they can be deported using the rule of law that exists, though all need of these measures need to be better funded and enforcement needs to be increased.Kamala Harris spent a great part of her life as an AG and DA prosecuting immigrant gangs and has been in their smuggling tunnels. She comes from a border state. Illegal border crossings are already down to what Trump's were when he left office. She already knows the problem and what needs to be done and pledges to take tough with well-funded action to fix it. Trump killed the best border control bill funding ever last spring so he could keep his MAGA Base angry and have something to run on. The number of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-
