The order reads:
To better inform the public regarding the public safety threats associated with sanctuary jurisdictions, the Secretary shall utilize the Declined Detainer Outcome Report or its equivalent and, on a weekly basis, make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignored or otherwise failed to honor any detainers with respect to such aliens.
According to the UK’s Independent:
It does not specify that only crimes committed by illegal immigrants should be included – raising the prospect of offences committed by any immigrant being published even if the person is living in the US legally.
The decision to publish a list of immigrant crimes is reminiscent of the ‘Black crime’ listings on Breitbart News – the far-right website that until recently was run by Steve Bannon, who is now Mr Trump’s chief strategist.
via Vox:
Under any circumstances, it is misleading to publish a weekly list of crimes committed by a minority of people in the country, regardless of how often members of that group commit crimes relative to the rest of the population. If it’s difficult to extrapolate how this would be misleading, imagine if Trump published a list of crimes committed by blond people. It would result in anyone who fits that physical profile being treated with undeserved suspicion by everyone, from their elementary school teachers to law enforcement. That’s an invitation to discrimination.
Except multiple studies show immigration doesn’t bring crime into the U.S.
PBS Newshour reports that across 200 metropolitan areas, “research has shown virtually no support for the enduring assumption that increases in immigration are associated with increases in crime.”
Immigration-crime research over the past 20 years has widely corroborated the conclusions of a number of early 20th-century presidential commissions that found no backing for the immigration-crime connection. Although there are always individual exceptions, the literature demonstrates that immigrants commit fewer crimes, on average, than native-born Americans.
In fact, analysis of census data from 1980 through to 2010 show immigrants are one-half to one-fifth as likely to be incarcerated as those born in the US Sanctuary cities show lower crime and better economic well-being according to a new analysis by the Center for American Progress and the National Immigration Law Center. Via CityLab:
[They] found 35.5 fewer violent and property crimes per 10,000 people in sanctuary counties versus non-sanctuary ones—“a result that is highly statistically significant.” Counties in large metros reported an even more dramatically difference, with 65.4 fewer crimes per 10,000 people.
Sanctuary counties also registered better economic conditions. On average, they had higher median incomes (by about $4,353), lower poverty (by 2.3 percent), and slightly lower unemployment rates (1.1 percent). These positive effects were exaggerated in the small counties, where the contributions of each individual immigrant were likely to have a larger impact.
Further reading:
- The Mythical Connection Between Immigrants and Crime (The Wall Street Journal)
- Immigrants less likely to commit crimes in United States than those born in America (The Independent)
- Contrary to Trump’s Claims, Immigrants Are Less Likely to Commit Crimes (The New York Times)
Bannon’s Breitbart News did it
Breitbart News, the white nationalist “alt-right” website headed Steve Bannon until he was hired by Trump in 2016, published crime stories under the tag “Black Crime” as a counterpoint to the Black Lives Matter movement and police-involved shootings of black men. Steve Bannon was described by his ex-wife as a bigot and anti-semite who complained about “whiny brat” Jews at their children’s school.
Via Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA):
In one instance, according to NBC News, Bannon asked a school director “why there were so many Hanukkah books in the library.” At another school, the ex-wife said, Bannon “asked me if it bothered me that the school used to be in a temple. I said no and asked why he asked … he did not respond.”
At a third school, The Archer School for Girls, Bannon “went on to say the biggest problem he had with Archer is the number of Jews that attend. He said that he doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiny brats’ and that he didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews.”
Bannon was later charged with misdemeanor domestic violence and battery after he put his hands around his wife’s neck and later smashed her phone when she tried to call the police.
Hitler did this too, while claiming criminality was genetic
The Nazi regime published a periodical named “The Criminal Jew,” which published photos of Jewish people who had committed crimes including pickpocketing. In 1943, a Nazi directive to the German press declared, “Jews are criminal by disposition. The Jews are not a nation like other nations but bearers of hereditary criminality.”
Trump also believes in genetic superiority
Donald Trump himself is strong believer in eugenics — a belief that some traits including success and criminality are genetically inherent. According to Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio, Trump’s father instilled with him the notion that his family’s success was genetic.
“The family subscribes to a racehorse theory of human development, they believe that there are superior people and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring.”
The PBS Frontline documentary “The Choice” further examines Trump’s statements about genetic superiority.
‘All Men are Created Equal.’ Well that’s not true!
‘Cuz some are smart. Some aren’t!
Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists love Trump
Trump was enthusiastically endorsed by one of the largest Neo-Nazi websites, The Daily Stormer, whose founder declared, “Heil Donald Trump – THE ULTIMATE SAVIOR.”
Trump was also endorsed by former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, as well as the current national director of the Knights of the KKK, Thomas Robb, as well as Imperial Wizard of the Rebel Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who said, “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes in, we believe in.”
Trump wavered in disavowing David Duke’s endorsement and was caught in a lie when he claimed not to know who he was.
During his election, a social media analysis found that more than half of Trump’s retweets on Twitter were white supremacists praising him, including multiple retweets of user named “WhiteGenocideTM”
Another analysis found that out of the 2.6 million tweets “containing language frequently found in anti-Semitic speech between August 2015— July 2016,” 60 percent “were replies to journalists’ posts.”
Via CNN:
Nearly 20,000 anti-Semitic tweets have been directed at more than 800 journalists since the 2016 presidential campaign began, often because those journalists voiced critical opinions about Donald Trump, the Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday.
We were warned
Holocaust survivor and Anne Frank’s stepsister Eva Schloss told Newsweek in early 2016 that Trump “is acting like another Hitler by inciting racism.”
- Sources
- POLITICO