06/19/2023
See earlier (2014): Unnoticed, Immigration Patriot Democrats Have Gone Extinct
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential run is a long shot, but his polling numbers are surprisingly high. Running against the sitting president of your own party is tough, yet his support is at a double-digit 15.7 points, and he boasts the highest favorability of any other major 2024 candidate [RFK Jr. ranks higher in favorability than other major 2024 candidates: poll, by Jared Gans, The Hill, June 14, 2023]. Critics consider him an extremist for his hard-nosed opposition to vaccines, but on many important issues, he’s quite moderate — especially compared to the lunatics who run the Democratic Party. On immigration, RFK Jr. is arguably the most sensible Democrat — which demonstrates just how crazy the Democratic Party has become.
Kennedy is one of the few Democrats who acknowledges that the Biden Regime created the “crisis” it claims to be fighting, as it permits the Great Replacement invasion to proceed. But he doesn’t simply admit it. It’s key to his campaign. “Is it possible to be pro-immigration AND pro closing the border? Yes,” he tweeted in May.
Is it possible to be pro-immigration AND pro closing the border? Yes. America should be a haven of freedom and prosperity, open to law-abiding migrants who will contribute to our society. However, immigration must proceed in an orderly, lawful manner. Right now we have chaos at…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 3, 2023
That would be a basic statement from a Republican. It’s not particularly strong. And Kennedy tried to sound pro-immigration. But the firm statement against illegal immigration is a bracing blast of fresh air from a Democrat.
He’s also attacked illegal-alien crime:
Francisco Oropeza Perez-Torres has been arrested for the murder of 5 people including a 9-year-old boy. Torres is a Mexican already deported 4 times. It is not anti-immigrant bigotry to demand an immigration system that keeps out criminals. In fact, letting them in stokes…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 3, 2023
Note, however, that he concluded that tweet with a pledge that he “will expand the kind of LEGAL immigration that made our country great.” (Emphasis added.) So he’s not an immigration patriot, but Democrats are so bad on the issue that he almost sounds like one.
Point is, Kennedy is solid on illegal immigration. “I will make the border impervious. We cannot release people, illegal aliens across the border,” he said last month [RFK Jr. says he will ‘make the border impervious’ if elected as Title 42 is set to expire, by Houston Keene, Fox News, May 11, 2023].
Kennedy also visited the border recently, something President Biden has done just once since taking office. Kennedy. He described a “dystopian nightmare” with migrants from around the world gathered there [‘Dystopian nightmare’: RFK Jr. visits southern border, by Devan Markham, NewsNation, June 7, 2023]. He wants stricter detention policies to dissuade future illegal immigration. “I am [with Trump more than Biden] on this particular issue,’ he said [RFK Jr. recounts border visit, offers Trump credit, by Charles Creitz, Fox News, June 8, 2023].
Of course, Kennedy is not the candidate for immigration patriots. He wants more legal immigration. He opposes a border wall, but does support defensive barriers in certain areas, another verboten opinion in his party.
He also relies on Leftist talking points to explain why we have a border crisis, as in this May 2 Tweet:
Why are so many people so desperate in the first place to leave their homes and countries behind for an uncertain future? The answer is uncomfortable. In large part, it is U.S. policies that create desperate conditions south of the border. The War on Drugs is one. U.S.-funded dictators, juntas, paramilitaries, and death squads. Neoliberal extraction of resources. Unpayable debts. It is inhumane and hypocritical to deny immigration while creating the conditions that drive immigration.
This sounds more like the plot of an Oliver Stone movie than sober analysis. Most Democrats and Leftists, including Biden, blame “conditions” in Latin America. The major difference between Kennedy and Biden is that the challenger blames American policies more than the president does.
It’s also untrue — as Kennedy’s own report on the border can attest. Africans, Indians, and Chinese haven’t joined the invasion because of the drug war. They’re here because they know the border is open, and they will never be deported once they disappear into the heartland.
Still, Kennedy stands head and shoulders above his fellow Democrats. Despite aiding and abetting the invasion, the Biden Regime pretends it is trying to stop it. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas could not bring himself to call the invasion “crisis” on 60 Minutes:
Because I have tremendous faith in the people of the Department of Homeland Security. And a crisis speaks to me of a withdrawal from our mission. And, and we are only putting more force and more energy into it.
[Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas won’t call immigration at southern border a crisis, by Sharyn Alfonsi, CBS, April 2, 2023]
Of course, the Regime does want to look proactive. Its dubious carrot-and-stick parole program offers legal entry to 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, while also, we are to believe, expediting deportations of any such illegal who doesn’t follow the process for admission. The Regime considered restarting family detention but didn’t. Biden sent troops to the border in May. But they weren’t there to stop the invasion — they went to process illegals.
But even these feeble moves are far too much for Biden’s fellow Democrats. Seventy-seven congressional Democrats denounced the president’s parole program in January, even though the plan would increase legal immigration. “We encourage your administration to stand by your commitment to restore and protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees,” the disgruntled Democrats wrote to Biden. Progressive Democrats also melted down over the proposed (but never enacted) return of family detention.
Said Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost of Florida:
I am disgusted and disappointed that our nation would ever consider reinstating a program that has been proven to cause harmful, long-term effects on migrant families, especially children, who have been forced to flee their home nations in search of freedom, safety, and democracy.
[Congressman Maxwell Frost Statement on Reports U.S. Considering Reinstating Migrant Family Detention Program, March 7, 2022]
Democrats also condemned troops at the border despite their just serving as process clerks. “The Biden Administration’s militarization of the border is unacceptable,” declared New Jersey Sen. Bob Mendendez.
Democrats simply don’t want any border control — and this is a position that a position that doesn’t seem to repel party voters. A 2022 Pew poll found that just 39 percent of Democrats polled believe increasing deportations is important, and just 59 percent think increased border security is important. That 59 percent might look like a majority. But get this number: Only 22 percent think securing the border is very important. Conversely, 72 percent of Republicans say securing the border is very important, while 79 percent say increasing deportations is important. And overwhelming majorities of Democrats polled think it’s more important to legalize illegals, protect chain migration, and bring in refugees [Republicans and Democrats have different top priorities for U.S. immigration policy, by J. Baxter Oliphant and Andy Cerda, Pew Research Center, September 8, 2022].
In 2022, Gallup found similar Leftist attitudes among Democrats. Nearly half of Democratic voters polled believe immigration should be increased; just 7 percent of Republicans agree. Less than 1 percent of Democrats said illegal immigration is the most important problem facing the country. Meanwhile, 15 percent of Republicans say it is [U.S. Immigration Views Remain Mixed and Highly Partisan, by Lydia Saad, Gallup, August 8, 2022].
The Democratic base apparently isn’t bothered by illegal immigration, nor does it seem to support any solutions to the problem. Democrats care far more about importing more foreigners than securing the border.
Despite his relatively good poll numbers, it is hard to see a constituency in the modern Democratic Party for RFK Jr.’s message. It will appeal to more Republicans than Democrats. His own party activists want the Great Replacement invasion to continue, and only pretends to care about it to appease independents. And core Democrat voters agree with their extremism.
Commend Kennedy for expressing some common sense on immigration — but it’s not only too hard for his party to swallow, but also demonstrates just how far to the anti-American Left the party has gone.
Washington Watcher II is an anonymous DC insider.
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