Should American citizens lose representation in Congress and lose out on billions of dollars in federal funding to their communities, and have that representation and funding awarded to people who are illegally present in the United States?
In a more rational time, the answer to that question would be obvious. But we’re not living in rational times. So President Donald Trump’s memorandum, signed on Tuesday, which attempts to at least minimize the harmful effect of including people who are here illegally in the Census—for the purpose of reapportioning congressional representation—was predictably met with howls of protest and lawsuits filed.
The German theologian Martin Niemöller famously summed up how dangerous social pathologies begin incrementally before snowballing into full-blown assaults on the core of civilized societies. Recounting how Nazi doctrine tightened its grip on Germany, he observed, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.” The trade unionists and the Jews were next until finally they came for him, “and there was no on left to speak for me,” he lamented.
The subversion of laws that exist to serve the welfare of society, by those who want to undermine that society, always begins slowly. People have to become inured to the erosion of the society’s foundational principles through relentless campaigns that make the perfect the enemy of the good.
The United States, under President Joe Biden, is sailing into uncharted waters. Democrats, for much of the past half century, have leaned in the direction of moving the United States toward the Scandinavian model of the “nanny state,” in which citizens surrender some of their freedoms and significant chunks of their paychecks in exchange for cradle-to-grave security.
Two weeks ago in this space, FAIR boldly claimed that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had effectively abolished the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
We now must confess that we were premature in that declaration. Mayorkas was not finished. He still had more to do to make sure that our immigration laws are never enforced.
Check out what Mark wrote in the Washington Times:
Earlier this month, as he seldom does, President Joe Biden took non-scripted questions from a reporter he wasn’t instructed to call on. A reporter asked the President about a Wall Street Journal report that revealed his administration was considering $450,000 payments to some 5,500 children and their illegal alien families who were allegedly separated when they crossed the southern border illegally while the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” was in effect. The President, in his trademark “C’mon Man” fashion, called the proposal “garbage” and vowed it is “not going to happen.”
Grizzled political veterans like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have learned that the best way to sell unpopular policies is to convince us that everyone else is as unhappy about it as we are. In the sometimes surreal world that exists inside the Beltway, a good piece of legislation is one that leaves everyone feeling like they got a raw deal.
Occasionally, on matters where public opinion is pretty evenly divided, a compromise that gives everyone a little of what they want in exchange for a little of what they don’t want has some merit.
FAIR President Dan Stein’s published opinion piece in Townhall:
House Speaker Mike Johnson and a delegation of 64 Republican lawmakers began the new year with a visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, along our lawless southern border. According to recent polls, 70 percent of Americans – including 55 percent of Democrats – believe that “stricter policies” are needed to end the humanitarian, fiscal and national security crises on our borders that they see as a direct result of Biden administration policies.
Read FAIR President Dan Stein’s op-ed with Congressman Clay Higgins (R-La.) in the Daily Caller
Recently, the House of Representatives formally initiated impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This effort is not a political witch hunt or an election year stunt.