RUTHFULLY YOURS

With their party dragging itself through an existential struggle, Democrats, with of course help from the media, have made the president’s illegal immigrant deportations their raison de etre. They’ve turned to tantrum-laced political theater and seasoned it with a mountain of hypocrisy.

This year’s George Floyd (or Michael Brown) for the Democrats is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran and alleged MS-13 gang member who was sent back to his home country. His case, says the Associated Press, is for Democrats “about fundamental American ideals — due process, following court orders, preventing government overreach.”

Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was speaking, even if unofficially, for the party and the media that does the party’s dirty work when he said in regard to the administration’s deportation policy, that “due process and separation of powers are matters of principle” and “without due process for all, we are all in danger.”

It’s blatantly obvious that Democrats “desperately want to neuter the Trump administration’s right to remove those who have come here illegally, including those who belong to foreign gangs, or commit serious felonies.”

Where were the Democrats and the media when Barack Obama was deporting more than 5 million (including both formal removals and returns), many – maybe even a majority – of whom didn’t get their “day in court”? They were around, but not much was said, certainly not to the level of screeching we’re hearing today. There was no rancor, no childish grandstanding, no rallies on behalf of the deported.

But given the standard set today by the Democrats and the press, there should have been.

In May 2014, as Obama’s presidency was winding down, the American Civil Liberties Union asked:

“When removing individuals from this country – permanently severing them from their homes, families, and community – which is more important: fairness or speed?”

Answering its own question, the ACLU complained that the Obama administration indeed “prioritized speed over fairness in the removal system, sacrificing individualized due process in the pursuit of record removal numbers.

“A deportation system that herds 75% of people through fast-track, streamlined removal is a system devoid of fairness and individualized due process.”

The ACLU’s commentary appealed to our country’s “proud tradition of individualized due process,” and insisted that “everyone deserves their day in court.”

“This is especially important for immigrants, many of whom might qualify for prosecutorial discretion given their considerable roots in the United States, but who will only get that consideration if a judge can review their individual case and decide whether or not they must leave.”

“Judicial review,” said the organization, “is critical.” “Yet,” the ACLU continued, “alarming new evidence has surfaced that in three out of four removal cases this does not happen at all.”

A Migration Policy Institute report released that same year that the ACLU was highlighting found that “nonjudicial removals accounted for just 3% of removals in the 1990s,” but by 2012 “expedited removal and reinstatements accounted for 75% of all deportations.” It was
“the highest proportion ever.”

Later in 2014, the ACLU mourned for “the ones Obama left behind” and “deported without a chance to be heard.” Then in 2016, the AFL-CIO complained the Obama administration’s “crackdown on immigrants” ignored due process and created “communities filled with fear.” Also in 2016, just days before the election, NBC News published a report on “Obama’s ‘Rocket Docket,’” in which immigration hearings routinely violated due process.

But the Democratic-media rage machine never even got started, not with Obama in the White House nor with Bill Clinton, who of the last three presidents to serve two consecutive terms is the real deporter in chief, with more than 12 million overall deportations, in the land’s highest office.

No, that’s always reserved for Republicans.