Abdi Iftin’s Dec. 19 article, “Help immigrants navigate the threat of Trump’s return,” references Trump’s “poisoning the blood of our country” comment to infuse a fear of deportation into Maine’s asylum-seekers. Iftin wants to mobilize Maine’s immigrant community to prevent a 2024 Trump victory and ensure the continuation of Biden‘s immigration policies.
Biden’s policies: Biden’s order to stop border wall construction allows migrants to cross illegally through gaps in the wall. Biden’s policy of “catch and release” allows those migrants to surrender to border agents for release, minimally vetted, into the United States. Biden’s repeal of Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy while waiting for an asylum hearing incentivizes Mexican cartels to profit by putting migrants on top of trains, in the waters of the Rio Grande and in remote desert locations to reach the U.S.
Chaos reigns at the southern border. Over recent days, more than 10,000 migrants have crossed unlawfully the U.S.-Mexico border daily (Portland Press Herald, Dec. 27) and over 4 million since Biden’s inauguration (Politifact, July 26). Migrants are coming from 150-plus countries (ABC News, Sept. 23). Any terrorists among them? It only took 19 to kill 3,000 Americans on 9/11.
Trump’s “poisoning the blood of our country” comment refers to this unprecedented immigration crisis where terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers and other criminals are inevitably in the mix. Trump’s promise for the “largest deportation in American history” (quoted by Iftin) is in response to the largest illegal immigration surge in American history.
Biden welcomes migrants jumping the fence at the border. Trump wants to deport illegal immigrants (aka enforce the law). Almost anyone with a pulse knows that makes sense. Legal immigrants, like Iftin, are welcome and have nothing to fear from Trump. Iftin should want law to rule the immigration system in his adopted country. His support of Biden’s policies suggests otherwise.
Nancy Chesley
Brunswick
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