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President Trump escalated his cruel rhetoric against immigrants at the border this morning in an unhinged tweet in which he made the unprecedented threat to permanently close the border between the United States in Mexico in a performative effort to make the imaginary threat of illegal immigration the subject of the nation’s headlines instead of, say, the jailing of a prominent member of the Trump campaign or the laying off of tens of thousands of workers by one of America’s most prominent car companies.
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Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018
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As usual, Trump places the burden of responsibility on someone else — this time on the Mexican government — which makes it easier for him to do what he does best, which is scapegoat the failure to resolve his imaginary crises onto others in dramatic, highly publicized tantrums.
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The repeated smearing of all Hispanic migrants as “criminals” or “rapists” or “drug dealers” is nothing new for Trump, who has predicated his entire political career on fearmongering about people of color to rich, white, racists.
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But in the wake of yesterday’s horrifying attacks at the border in which Border Patrol agents bombarded migrant families with young children with tear gas, Trump’s words are particularly ominous.
They represent a dangerous escalation that could be the first steps towards even more naked cruelty and unrestrained violence against migrants — and don’t doubt that the precedent set by the United States won’t be echoed by governments facing migrant crises across the world.
