Kristi Noem's posturing on 'illegal' immigration spotlights a common misrepresentation
South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) is ambitious. Shes leaned into her hands-off approach to the coronavirus pandemic, earning her outsize media attention given the size of her state, though at some obvious cost to South Dakotans. She embraced former president Donald Trump (kissing his enormous ass), endearing herself to his base. And shes been eager to leverage right-wing cultural fights to raise her profile.
On Wednesday, that instinct led to this bit of posturing.
Republicans have been eager to use the increase in migrants apprehended at the border with Mexico to pressure the Biden administration for several weeks. Noems statement goes a bit further, claiming that she will object to any attempts by the federal government to relocate undocumented migrants in her state. Even beyond the immediate irony of the White governor of a state in which 1 in 11 residents are Native American proclaiming who is American enough to reside there, there are obvious flaws in the line Noem is drawing.
For one, those who enter the country illegally are almost never able to gain citizenship, as immigration attorney David Leopold explained to The Washington Post in 2016. In other words, undocumented immigrants wont be able to call Noem when they become American because they probably wont be able to.
But the more important issue here is the use of illegal immigrant as a broad descriptor for whom the administration is dealing with.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/kristi-noems-posturing-on-illegal-immigration-spotlights-a-common-misrepresentation/ar-BB1fGM1y