Deportation Force!

President Trump seems bent on fulfilling his campaign promise to round up millions of your neighbors and deport them. But how? The administration can appoint more administrative judges to rubber-stamp deportation orders, and private contractors can make a buck from imprisoning millions in new concentration camps, but who will round up all those people? Where’s the promised Deportation Force? How can you quickly recruit and hire 5,000 new Border Patrol agents and 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents?

Easy. Just lower the standards. A Department of Homeland Security memo suggests ending polygraph and physical fitness tests and eliminating Spanish language skills from the entrance exams.

More:

“Trump administration moving quickly to build up nationwide deportation force,” David Nakamura, Washington Post

“To Detain More Immigrants, Trump Administration to Speed Border Hiring,” Vivian Yee and Ron Nixon, New York Times

Related:

“ICE immigration arrests of noncriminals double under Trump,” Maria Sacchetti, Washington Post

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Trump On Immigration

On Wednesday, Chinese clothing importer and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump talked about immigration in Mexico and Arizona (aka Joe Arpaio‘s playpen). Mr. Trump’s immigration policy has not not changed; he is just saying different words. He may have tried out some of those new words on Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, but they dispute what was said during their closed-door meeting.

But there’s no mistaking what Donald Trump said in Phoenix. His Deportation Force would deport millions of people who have lived in the U.S. for years, breaking up families, destroying small businesses and agriculture, and hobbling the manufacturing and construction industries.

Most of the GOP’s hastily assembled “Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump” have since self-deported from the campaign, and RNC Hispanic media relations chief Ruth Guerra has resigned.

At the Phoenix rally, Rudy Giuliani and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions sported “Make Mexico Great Again Also” baseball caps.

More:

“‘He Used Us as Props’: Conservative Hispanics Deplore Donald Trump’s Speech,” Alan Rappeport, New York Times

“‘No amnesty’: Trump vows to deport millions during ‘first hour in office,'” Rory Carroll, The Guardian

“Trump’s immigration speech decoded: What he said, what it means and how it would work,” Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times

“Fact-checking Donald Trump’s immigration speech,” By Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Glenn Kessler,” Washington Post

Virginia KKK Backs Trump

The Imperial Wizard of the Rebel Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has endorsed Donald J. Trump as his choice for US President. “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes in, we believe in,” he told Richmond WWBT’s Chris Taylor.

More:

“Virginia KKK Leader Endorses Trump: ‘What He Believes In, We Believe In,’”Katherine Krueger, TPM Livewire

Related:

“David Duke Hails Donald Trump For Thwarting The ‘Jewish Supremacists Who Control Our Country,'” Brian Tashman, Right Wing Watch

“Klan’s Trump Fans Rip ‘Liberal Media’ For Making Them Look Too ‘Racist,’” Asawin Suebsaeng, Daily Beast

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New Crime: Flying While Bilingual

While his Southwest Airlines flight was at the gate at LAX two weeks ago, a college student called his uncle on his mobile phone and was promptly hauled off the plane. Why? He was speaking to his uncle in Arabic.

UC Berkeley senior Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was on a flight to Oakland on April 6 when he called his uncle in Baghdad to tell him about an event he attended in LA. A frightened passenger spoke with flight attendants, and Mr. Makhzoomi was escorted off the plane to a public area in the terminal, where security officers searched him. FBI agents arrived, spoke with him, determined he was no threat, and let him fly back home on Delta.

Mr. Makhzoomi has lived in the US since 2010. He is the son of an Iraqi diplomat who was imprisoned and killed by Saddam Hussein. Imagine what he must make of this LAX experience. He is the sixth Arab American thrown off a flight at a US airport in the past four months. How many Islamophobes have been removed from planes? Zero.

1,700,000 Arab Americans — and the world’s 300 million Arabic speakers — just got a message: don’t fly Southwest.

More:

“College Student Is Removed From Flight After Speaking Arabic on Plane,” Liam Stack, New York Times

“UC Berkeley student questioned, refused service after speaking Arabic on flight,” Maya Eliahou, Daily Californian

“Student who fled Saddam Hussein kicked off flight for speaking in Arabic,” Alix Culbertson, Daily Express

“UC Berkeley student removed from Southwest flight after speaking Arabic on plane,” Yanan Wang, Washington Post

Related:

“The unapologetic racial profiling of Muslims has become America’s new normal,” Haroon Moghul, Quartz

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Trump PAC: ‘Don’t Vote for a Cuban’

The white nationalist American Freedom Party‘s American National Super PAC has been robocalling voters with this message:“The white race is dying out in America and Europe because we are afraid to be called ‘racist.'” …. “Donald Trump is not a racist, but Donald Trump is not afraid. Don’t vote for a Cuban. Vote for Donald Trump.”

Un-American. Unconstitutional. Unacceptable.

Making people from a minority group wear identity badges, registering them in a database and tracking them. Denying sanctuary to refugees due to their faith traditions and returning them to deadly war zones. Closing houses of worship. Barring valid travelers from entering this country due solely to their religion.

That’s not America.

A man who grew up across the street from his German-American immigrant grandmother should know better. Even one who is an egocentric, bigoted, billionaire bully.

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Trump Immigration Plan

Donald J. Trump has called for a huge wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, like the Great Wall of China. Someone should tell Mr. Trump how effective the Great Wall was against Xiongnu and Mongol invaders (it wasn’t).

As is his habit, The Donald would build this wall with other people’s money. After implying he would somehow charge Mexico’s government for wall construction, he now says he would raise fees on temporary visas for Mexican CEOs, diplomats and workers, which sounds like a great way to stifle business growth but would raise chickenfeed, so he’d somehow identify and intercept the outgoing remittance payments unauthorized immigrant workers send to their impoverished families back in Mexico.

The Donald’s Diagnosis

In a three-page, 881 word statement Monday afternoon, Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump clarified statements he made on June 16th. Mexican immigrants, he claimed, are not just drug dealers, killers, and rapists; they’re responsible for “tremendous infectious disease … pouring across the border.”

There would be good reason to fear immigrant-borne epidemics if vaccination rates in Mexico and Central America were not among the highest in the world. The measles vaccination rate in those countries, in fact, is higher than that of the US. “If anything,” points out Peter Weber, “those countries should be concerned about Americans coming down to visit.”

Of course, it’s not like Mr. Trump believes in vaccination … or climate change or Barack Obama’s Hawaiian birth, come to think of it.

So Donald Trump is no physician. Neither is Maria Konnikova, but she offers a very convincing diagnosis of  Donald Trump: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Related:

“Donald Trump’s most delusional statement yet: ‘I’ll win the Latino vote,’” Sophia Tesfaye, Salon

“Donald Trump: The Democrats’ Best Campaign Asset,” Bill Humphrey and Stephan Richter, The Globalist

“Donald Trump is the ultimate opportunist: Why his racist theatrics—and surging popularity—explain everything about the modern GOP,” Heather Digby Parton, Salon

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Where Does Donald Trump Make his Suits? ¡Mexico!

“Donald Trump has had some nasty things to say about Mexicans lately. In the announcement of his 2016 bid for the US presidency, he called Mexican immigrants to the US criminals and “rapists.” Later, on Twitter, he added, “Mexico is not our friend. They’re killing us at the border and they’re killing us on jobs and trade.”

It seems to follow that Trump would disapprove of American companies manufacturing their goods in Mexico too, except that Trump apparently does it himself. A photo circulated on Twitter by BuzzFeed political reporter Adrian Carrasquillo shows a jacket from Trump’s clothing line bearing a ‘made in Mexico’ label.”

— “Guess where Mexico-bashing Donald Trump makes his suits,” Marc Bain, Quartz

The astute Mary Cummins notes that Donald J. Trump Collection suits are made in Mexico for Sheldon Brody’s Marcraft Apparel Group, which has offices in Trump Plaza. The Wall Street Journal found that their fabric quality was less than advertised.

TV Terminates Trump

Donald John Trump, Sr., reality television performer, real estate heir, golf course owner, beauty pageant producer, hotel and casino boss, chairman and president of Trump This n’ That, and really rich person, declared his candidacy for U.S. President two weeks ago. He also declared that Mexican immigrants are drug dealers, rapists, and killers.

Needless to say, this did not go over well with the USA’s largest ethnic group, Latinos, or with the Republic of Mexico. America’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster Univisión was the first to unplug Trump, dropping coverage of the Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants he produces, and NBC followed suit. Understandably, Miss Mexico opted out of the Miss Universe competition, and so did Miss Costa Rica. NBC’s Miss USA co-hosts also bailed, Miss USA judges Zuleyka Rivera and Emmitt Smith recused themselves, and rapper Flo Rida won’t perform on the show, either.

New York City is reviewing its contracts with the Trump Organization, which manages Central Park’s skating rinks and carousel and golf links at Point Ferry Park in the Bronx. NASCAR won’t hold its awards ceremony at Trump’s hotel. Macy’s is discontinuing it’s Trump menswear line, but there’s been lots of interest in Donald Trump piñatas, hand-crafted in Mexico.