Was Donald Trump Right?

The response to what Donald Trump said at his announcement for president, has been almost hysterical by the liberal media, open borders advocates, and liberal Democrats, mainly to try to score some cheap political points.

The parsing of what Trump said, although some might say was not artfully or diplomatically done, made it sound like he was painting a broad brush on all Mexicans. Being the non-politician that he is, he could've and should've structured his words better, but was what he said wrong?

He pointed out, which almost all straight-thinking people already know, is that we have an “illegal immigrant” problem, and that it was something that should not happening to our country. He claimed that the country of Mexico was sending her “human problems” to our country (about 75% of illegal aliens do not have a high school diploma), thus causing much havoc in our country as drug dealers, human traffickers (coyotes), and yes, even some rapists and kidnappers, have invaded our country”illegally”. He stated that not all people who have crossed our border illegally fall into that criminal category, but it is a big problem for our social services, law enforcement, and our national security, by not knowing who is coming into our country. (By the way, this is not strictly a Mexican problem as many nationalities, from around the world, have crossed our border illegally, but 70% are Mexican).

Let's look at the problem that Donald Trump alluded to in his now famous remarks. Between $11 billion and $22 billion is spent on welfare programs to illegal immigrants each year by state governments. Approximately $22 billion is spent on food assistance in the form of food stamps, WIC programs, and free school lunches for illegal immigrants. $2.5 billion a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal immigrants. $12 billion a year is spent on primary and secondary education for children here illegally who, in most cases, cannot speak English. $17 billion a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal immigrants, known as “anchor babies”.
$3 million a day is spent to incarcerate illegal immigrants (30% of all federal prison inmates are illegal immigrants). In addition, Mexican immigrants send home to Mexico over $20 billion, which is money not spent here in the U.S.A.

Mexico, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be helping us stop the flow of illegals into our country. In fact, it is rumored that Mexico has set up information seminars for people on what to do, say, and how to act if they cross our border and get apprehended by U.S. Authorities. Of course, the policies of the Obama administration hasn't helped the situation by their lax policies of turning a blind-eye on the problem, and by fostering policies like the “Dream Act” and by releasing over 30,500 criminally convicted immigrants back into the general population, in 2014.

The irony of this brouhaha about what Trump said, is that if someone “illegally” enters Mexico, the Mexican authorities immediately deport those people and give them no benefits whatsoever. Contrast that with our policy. Why shouldn't we have those same policies that Mexico has, and which Mexico has the nerve to criticize us for in some cases, of trying to bring order to our border to stop illegal immigrants?

So, Donald Trump is getting beat up in the press and by the holier-than-thou Democrats, but has what he said been discredited - the answer is “NO” and his words have resonated with many people around the country. He said what many others were thinking, but were afraid to say in our “politically correct” environment for fear of being called a bigot or worse.

Love him or hate him, he has brought this problem to the forefront and it looks like some meaningful action, to address this problem, by the Congress will be forthcoming. THANK YOU FOR THAT, DONALD TRUMP.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann