Trump's Toxic Rhetoric Sets The Stage For What His Followers Fear: BLANKET AMNESTY

There is both principled and unprincipled opposition to illegal immigration. The principled position rests on the simple conviction that this nation is based upon the "rule of law," and that those who violate our laws, at the very least, should not be rewarded, certainly not with the gift of U.S. citizenship.

The principled opponents of illegal immigration disdain the use of of the term "undocumented" as a distressing example of political correctness and reject the the idea that everyone who arrives at our border deserves to be welcomed. This principled opposition acknowledges that the world is full of needy and oppressed people, but also that there is no way we can accommodate them all. That is well within the flexible boundaries of American political debate.

Photo: Justin Lane, epa

In contrast, the irresponsible opposition subsumed in the arguments put forth on numerous occasions by Donald J. Trump is that there is a substantial criminal element lurking among those living in this country illegally, that the estimated 12 million illegal residents could be deported, and that an impregnable wall on the border of the U.S. and Mexico to keep them out would be more than an extravagant public works project and more effective than the barrier built by Emperor Hadrian to keep the Picts and Scots out of England.

Trump has succeeded in discrediting the opposition to a blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants with his indiscriminate and irresponsible rants, made himself unacceptable to a vast number of voters and, in his likely defeat, will probably drag down with him enough Republican members of Congress that will make it more difficult to temper the immigration policies of a victorious Hillary Clinton, who will almost certainly involve some kind of amnesty. Trump, by his intemperate proposals, is a threat to the structure of checks and balances that would moderate the immigration policies of a Democratic administration, which will likely be overly lenient.

Read the rest of this op-ed HERE.

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