Dems don't want immigration reform, they want votes

Since before Bill Clinton was President, the Democrats have been steadily losing their base support from the White working-class — but this has accelerated since he passed his horrible trade deals. And the Democrats would like nothing better than to fill this void with 11 to 18 million undocumented immigrants living within the U.S.

So when it comes to immigration policy, the Democrats always frame this as a "race" issue. It's not. It's an "immigration" issue, an "economic" issue and a "security" issue. But the Democrats always play the race card for votes — and that deeply offends me.

And what's very odd is, last week when it sounded as though Donald Trump might be "softening" his stance on the deportation of these undocumented people, the Democrats and the pundits in the liberal media were sounding the alarm and raising the red flag! — as though, "How dare he try to still our votes!" — votes that the Democrats have always taken for granted.

Damn those French-Canadians! I suppose NAFTA wasn't enough! Now they're coming here to take away even more of our jobs! But the Democrats will accuse me of racism if I complain!

I like to call myself a "Progressive Independent" — but many (maybe most) progressives might not think so because of my position on immigration. While I almost completely disagree with the Republicans on all their economic and trade policies (feed the rich and starve the poor) with their "Starve the Beast" ideology and their positions on Social Security and Medicare, I don't completely disagree with ALL their positions on immigration.

Donald Trump talks sense when he discusses trade (if you can believe him) and on immigration. The "liberal" media (those that push the Democrat's policies and politicians) benefits from trade deals like the pro-corporate TPP trade agreement (the deal that Obama and 81% of the Republicans in Congress pushed for), when average working people do not benefit from these trade agreements — just like NAFTA (for Canada and Mexico) and PNTR with China that Bill Clinton passed. There's a big difference between "fair" trade and "free" trade — and demanding "fair" trade does not make one a "protectionist" or "anti-trade".

And so what if Trump makes his ties in China or his shirts in Korea (or if he dodges taxes) — who gives a damn? As a businessman, he's only taking advantage of bad trade deals and tax laws that our elected politicians had passed that had enabled him (and thousands of others) to take advantage of — just like the tax dodgers Apple (making iPhones in China), Nike (making shoes in Vietnam), GM and Ford (in Mexico) and Boeing (almost everywhere else but Seattle Washington). And who knows, maybe if Trump wore a different hat (POTUS), he might change this, because he won't be just a local businessman anymore, he'll also be the mayor and sheriff.

I have followed Trump closely on his immigration plans, and they are not really all that draconian as many people would like to make them out to be. But Trump is very clumsy in explaining his positions and walks a fine line between his far-right base and the general public. He's not the smooth-talking orator and slick politician that most of us are accustomed to — like Obama when he is reading from a teleprompter (listen to him speak without one: "Ah, ah, ah, ah..."). Trump speaks off the cuff and considers himself to be more "politically incorrect".

But the "liberal media" (aka The Big Six — the 6 corporate conglomerates that controls 90% of the U.S. media) and my political heroes like Bernie Sanders always paint Trump as a racist: "He hates Mexicans; they're all drug dealers and rapists; they're all murderers; he's Islamophobic; he hates Muslims; he hates Blacks, he's anti-Semitic; he's homophobic; he hates gays and lesbians!" The media and the Democrats wants us to think Trump hates everyone but David Duke and the KKK — which is totally ridiculous fear-mongering. I watch Trump's rallies LIVE on YouTube and see many instances where Trump's words are taken out of context and used against him by the Clinton campaign, CNN and MSNBC — and so it's no wonder Trump is always criticizing the corporate media.

* NOTE: CNN (Turner Broadcasting) and MSNBC (Comcast) support Hillary Clinton and donate to her campaign,. A VP at Comcast held a $2,700-a-plate fundraiser for her. So when they have "panels" on their shows, they sometimes have the Clinton supporters outnumbering the lone Trump supporter 5 to 1. They are not "fair and balanced" when it comes to reporting about Hillary Clinton. Just look at all the videos I posted at YouTube from Fox News dated around this time that shows all the new information we have from the FBI's latest data dump about her FBI interview. This is barely mentioned on the other cable news stations. They are just (if not more) biased against Donald Trump as they were against Bernie Sanders during the primary when he ran against Hillary Clinton ... totaled biased and manipulative reporting. And we all know how Clinton lied about Sanders, so she'd also lie about Trump as well (She lies about everything ... she even lies about lying!)

The Clinton's actions (the crime bill; welfare reform, private prisons, etc) were not just mere words, they were also very racist. And Hillary Clinton is partially responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims in Iraq, Libya and Syria. Whereas, if he could, Trump would try to contain his killing to just members of ISIS — and not just use the excuse of wars to export weapons to the Middle-East to benefit U.S. arms manufacturers.

Immigration isn't about "race", it's mostly about national security and jobs (economic security). If jobs in the U.S. aren't offshored to other countries who pay slave wages, many others are also lost to foreigners on guestworker visas (many who over-stay their limits). Both the Democrats and the Republicans have allowed this to happen with bad trade deals and by using H-1B visas to displace American workers with lower wages by perpetuating the lie that Americans lack the skills. If anything, many are over-skilled and work in jobs at McDonalds and Wal-Mart.

People born in the U.S. have a shrinking job pool, so flooding the labor market with more people from outside the U.S. puts downward pressure on wages and makes jobs less abundant. The employment-to-population has been in a steady decline since 2000. Americans WOULD do the jobs that illegal migrants do ... if they were paid a fair and living wage. But these undocumented workers are paid sub-par wages and are also abused by their employers (i.g. threatened with deportation, etc.) — and this further poisons the job market. These days you have to have a very expensive college degree just to get a job that only used to require a high school education! (Jill Stein wants to us QE to bail out student debt, the same way it was used to bail out the big banks. And why not?)

While Americans should not demonize those attempting to enter the country in search of a better life for themselves and their families, Americans need to ensure the economic security and safety of their fellow citizens first (which includes legal immigrants from many countries) before extending their generosity to others. Besides a lack of good-paying jobs, there's also the added burden on social programs, public schools, infrastructure (etc) — not to mention that a lot of financial resources (money earned from undocumented workers in the U.S.) is sent out-of-country to be spent in those local economies (the same way our military and diplomatic personal who are stationed overseas spend American dollars in foreign countries, benefiting those economies and their tax base the way tourists do here when they visit the U.S.)

I don't like Trump's idea of lowering taxes for everybody (which disproportionately benefits the very rich); because at the same time he talks about more military spending (rather than just eliminating all the waste, fraud and abuse) and more investment in infrastructure. Where does Trump think all the money will come from? Cuts in Social Security and Medicare? But on immigration, he makes a lot sense (whether you believe he's a racist or not).

Sensible immigration policies that (I believe) should all be enacted simultaneously

• Immediately grant permanent Green Cards to people who have illegally entered the country — with the exception to those who committed serious crimes (they would be immediately deported — or after having served any prison sentences.)
• Immediately grant U.S. citizenship to those who were involuntarily brought here (or were born here) by their parents who illegally entered the country.
• Re-enforce the borders, although, not necessarily by a continuous Trump wall, but wherever it is feasible, financially and physically possible and only where needed — including using additional technology and additional border guards.
• Those who over-stayed work and student visas could be offered a "path to citizenship" if they immediately register, complete citizenship classes, pay fines (and back taxes if this applies), and pass an "ideological" test.
• Strictly enforce EXISTING immigration laws (and do away with the "sanctuary cities") and make it perfectly clear that GOING FORWARD anyone else will be immediately deported without exception. Otherwise, the U.S. will be right back where they are again, just like after Ronald Reagan's amnesty program.
• People born here (i.g. foreign tourists on vacation who give birth in the U.S., etc.) should not be able to automatically qualify for American citizenship unless at least one parent is a U.S. citizen at the time of the child's birth.
• People attempting to migrate from countries where ISIS (or other extremist ideologies) have been problematic SHOULD BE scrutinized more thoroughly, properly identified and extremely vetted. This is not "racial profiling", this is "political profiling" and "national" profiling.
• This immigration policy would equally apply to all those entering the U.S. from the Northern border, by way of sea and airports (or via U.S. territories), or from the Southern border. This is not a "race" issue, it's an "immigration" issue, an "economic" issue and a "security" issue.)

If for any reason you don't agree with any of these polices, then you should show your sincerity by removing all fences, walls and locks from your home — and allow your neighbors to enter any time they want and at will — without any questions asked. (And if they take your job, so be it.) Some people will call me a "hater" for not wanting open borders, while also hating me for being against open borders and supporting many parts of Trump's immigration plan.

Of course, stricter immigration enforcement will only stem the flow of lost jobs for American workers, but it won't eradicate it. One study showed that 1/3 of all U.S. jobs are still prone to offshoring/outsourcing — and then there will always be more automation, robots and artificial intelligence in the future. Long gone are the days when a man would work at one factory for 45 years before retiring, when his son would follow in his footsteps to do the same. I suspect most young people graduating from school today will be struggling to find one job after another during their entire working careers.

* Personally, I'm now on a fixed income. I could live much better in Mexico with their lower cost of living. But I can't just pack up my truck and drive down there to live ... at least, not legally anyway. And I doubt very seriously I would be hired by anyone there. If I could, I would move there. I love Mexico. But I also wouldn't move there as an illegal migrant and start burning the Mexican flag.

Those damn Canadians! If they're here illegally, deport them all! We sent them our jobs with NAFTA and the ungrateful bastards still come here to take away even more of our jobs!

* Full Disclosure: To all Canadians, I was only being sarcastic to make a point. Please forgive me ;)