Trump Doesn't Need to Explain Which Immigrants He Thinks Are "Animals"

[babylonsister]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/immigrants-or-gang-members-theyre-all-animals-to-trump.html

Trump Doesn’t Need to Explain Which Immigrants He Thinks Are “Animals”
His actions tell us enough.

By Mark Joseph Stern
May 17, 20184:56 PM


At a roundtable discussion about California’s sanctuary policies on Wednesday, President Donald Trump made a remark that quickly dominated the news. Responding to a sheriff who complained that “there could be an MS-13 member I know about” but “cannot tell ICE about,” because of California’s immigrant-friendly policies, the president declared:

snip//

This dispute largely misses the point. Yes, it is important to take the president’s words in context. Let’s consider that context: From Day 1, the Trump administration has strived to collapse the distinction between undocumented immigrants and gang members. Under Trump’s authority, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ramped up its efforts to categorize law-abiding immigrants as “gang-affiliated,” thereby subjecting them to detention and deportation. Trump may have been referring to MS-13 specifically in his roundtable comment. But to the president and his immigration enforcement officers, virtually all Latino immigrants are possible MS-13 members. The two groups might as well be indistinguishable.

Trump, of course, has long implied that a majority of Latino immigrants are criminals. In his presidential announcement, he notoriously proclaimed: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

snip//

So, back to the question at hand. Who are the animals to whom Trump referred on Wednesday? Sure, he may have meant individuals accused by his administration of associating with MS-13. But since ICE operates under the assumption that every undocumented immigrant it nabs is an MS-13 member, the distinction disappears. With the president’s blessing, America’s immigration agents have come to brand all undocumented immigrants as gang members. Trump’s defenders want us to consider his comments in context. And the context is that “animals” are whomever ICE decides to dehumanize for their own convenience.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Is M-13 even a real thing?

It just sounds like so much republican bullshit... like that Deep State nonsense.
Yet another convenient tag for soapboxing, branding, and scapegoating. What's
truly scary are the hate-filled racist motivations behind all this name calling.
That NY attorney and Trump are not the exceptions... they're the Grand Wizards.

[Caliman73]

3. Yes MS-13 is a real thing.

It is a primarily Salvadoran gang that started in the 1980's in Los Angeles out of rivalry and the need for protection from older and bigger Mexican and Black gangs. They have about 8,000 to 10,000 affiliated members in the US, which puts them on par with other gangs like 18th Street and Bloods and Crips gangs. During the beginnings of the Reagan "war on drugs" a lot of MS members were deported to El Salvador, got trained in war during the Salvadorian Civil War, then came back to the US so you can say the US birthed MS, trained it up because of our meddling in Central America, and gave them power through the drug trade. They have joined forces with Mexican Cartels to run drugs and human trafficking as well as enforcing against rival cartels and gangs. They are pretty bad, but they are being blown way out of proportion and it is definitely being done in the service of racism to rile up Trump's base of supporters.

[B2G]

4. Are you serious?

Google is your friend.

[C_U_L8R]

5. I know they're real - and yes, I'm serious

they're also a very convenient straw man for racists like Trump.
The people Trump is actually calling animals - the families who
need sanctuary cities - are not M-13 gangsters at all.

[mountain grammy]

7. Exactly!

It's like no attack, no matter what, can be a "terrorist" attack unless it's committed by Muslims. trump and company would have us believe most of the Mexicans crossing the border are M-13, which is a total lie. Just whipping up trumpers.

[Caliman73]

8. MS-13 is a Salvadoran gang.

However, your post is accurate even in the inaccurate description of MS-13. Not very many people know or care to know how MS-13 formed, who they are, or where they came from. They are not Mexican and few if any Mexicans belong to MS-13, though the `3 indicates alliance with the Mexican Mafia which operates in the prison system throughout the US.

Gangs form out of a sense of protection, wanting to belong, and out of a sense of hopelessness. They are often born of poverty, where parents have to work long hours and are not able to provide a foundation of support. While gangs have always engaged in petty crime and violence, it was the drug war and America's insatiable appetite yet prudish approach to drugs that elevated the stakes and violence in gang life. There is a documentary about the Bloods and Crips in LA where in the 70's, it showed the average gang member would be involved "banging" (if you will), then get a job at the Firestone or Goodyear Factories or some other good paying job and leave that life behind. When those factories folded up (and ironically headed down to Mexico and Central America), they stayed in the gangs into adulthood. Throw in drugs, where you have a chance to make money and drive a fancy car, and now you have something worth killing over.

Anyone crossing the border is assumed to be "Mexican" and that is good enough for Trump supporters and people who don't care to understand what kind of factors cause people to feel the need to leave everything they know behind and risk their lives to get to a country that spits on them.

[mountain grammy]

9. Thank you for the information.

Very interesting. We lived in Denver and my son attended a high school where the Crips and Bloods were active. They caused chaos and violence, and Denver's murder rate was pretty alarming a couple of summers, but it was not widespread, and it was a small segment of people. People in Denver's communities really stepped up to address issues, like the ones you mentioned. My kid was careful, but never felt unsafe at school or in the neighborhood.

I did not know MS-13 was Salvadoran, or maybe I heard it and forgot. I'll do some reading on that. Last I read, a while ago I'm sure, conditions down there were horrible.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. As someone who grew up during WW2,

we were well aware of this statement,believe it came from Georbel's . My Dad and I would listen to the BBC late at night on the Short Wave Radio Bands. To this day,will never forget those news broadcasts. As someone who spoke German as a first language at the time,I do remeber the inflection used in those hate-filled speeches.

Trump has a habit of slipping phrases right out of Hitlers so called Book.

[Girard442]

6. He is truly an authentic American Nazi.