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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWatch the Whole Video - By Josh Marshall
By Josh Marshall | May 17, 2018 11:50 am
There were a lot of questions raised by Trump supporters yesterday about when President Trump referred to people as animals. The argument is that he wasnt referring to immigrants or even undocumented immigrants in general. He was supposedly referring to hardened MS-13 gang members. Thats not true. The comment comes in an interchange with a county sheriff in which the sheriff complains about how the state laws in California have made it harder for her department to work with ICE. I went back and grabbed the longer exchange so people can watch for themselves.
The exchange is with Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims
Link to tweet
?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftalkingpointsmemo.com%2Fedblog%2Fwatch-the-whole-video
Heres the official transcript of what you just heard.
When there became a legal challenge to the 48-hour holds for ICE, it was very frustrating for us. So what I did is I invited ICE to put their officers in my jails so theyre able to do their work. We didnt have the staffing to be able to help figure out who they wanted to talk to or didnt. I said, come on in, work with our people to keep our community safe. Two weeks later, Mr. President, Kate Steinle was murdered.
Now, I wasnt the only sheriff to do that. Sheriff Youngblood did, Sheriff Christianson. And it was perfect because we didnt have to take our time, with our staff, to do anything. ICE was in there doing their work in a safe, controlled, environment. And then, the initiatives started happening the TRUST Act, the TRUTH Act, and finally, SB 54, the Values Act. And that is causing us all kinds of turmoil.
So here we are, stuck in the middle, trying to decide. We have federal law, we have state law. And thats why I welcomed Attorney General Sessionss lawsuit, because that will provide us the clarity that we need and direction that we need. What do we do? Because here we are.
And I appreciated Mr. Homan and ICE. We had a great relationship; we still do. But now ICE is the only law enforcement agency that cannot use our databases to find the bad guys. They cannot come in and talk to people in our jail, unless they reach a certain threshold. They cant do all kinds of things that other law enforcement agencies can do. And its really put us in a very bad position.
THE PRESIDENT: Its a disgrace. Okay? Its a disgrace.
SHERIFF MIMS: Its a disgrace.
THE PRESIDENT: And were suing on that, and were working hard, and I think it will all come together, because people want it to come together. Its so ridiculous. The concept that were even talking about is ridiculous. Well take care of it, Margaret. Well win.
SHERIFF MIMS: Thank you. There could be an MS-13 member I know about if they dont reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it.
THE PRESIDENT: We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in and were stopping a lot of them but were taking people out of the country. You wouldnt believe how bad these people are. These arent people. These are animals. And were taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate thats never happened before. And because of the weak laws, they come in fast, we get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out. Its crazy.
The dumbest laws as I said before, the dumbest laws on immigration in the world. So were going to take care of it, Margaret. Well get it done. Were going to ask that man right there, because that man can do it. (Laughter.) Right now hes the most important man in the room. Kevin can do it.
To me, the full context is about as damning as the Presidents context in isolation. The comment isnt restricted to MS-13 gang members. Its a more general discussion of state laws interfering with Sheriffs ability to work with ICE to facilitate deportations. So its really about anyone swept up into the criminal justice system, for everything from the most trivial to the most heinous acts. More generally, the clear thrust of Trumps comment is that the country is being overridden by a wave of criminal aliens even though there is voluminous evidence that immigrants, legal and not, commit crimes at significantly lower rates than the native-born. Theres no salvaging this hideous comment.
I think its important to add that labeling classes of people subhuman is really always wrong. It leads to horrific actions. Thats still true even if were talking about people in gangs who do commit horrific acts.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/watch-the-whole-video
underpants
(182,798 posts)Marking.
unblock
(52,210 posts)but everyone understood him to be smearing all mexican immigrants, not just the tiny few who were actually rapists.
his intent and meaning in both cases couldn't be more obvious.
he is not narrowly calling a small number of horrible people "animals". he knowingly means to be maligning all undocumented immigrants with the same brush.
Gothmog
(145,195 posts)MS13 gang members