CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem suggested Tuesday that President Joe Biden halt immigration enforcement in the region of Texas where the latest school massacre took place.
Wait, what?
Kayyem, who served as assistant secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, pointed to the large Hispanic population in and near Uvalde, Texas, as reason why Biden should take such action.
“The most important thing for the federal government to do right now is to say there will be no immigration enforcement during this period in that area,” Kayyem said on CNN. “It has a large immigration [sic] population. You want parents with their kids, you don’t want people hiding right now, and we need to make that clear ASAP.”
According to U.S. Census data, nearly three-quarters of the population in Uvalde County is Hispanic, while as many as 90% of students in Uvalde CISD are Hispanic, data show.
Kayyem said “political issues in Texas” necessitate such a decision from the White House. Kayyem did not clarify to what issues she was referring, though perhaps she was invoking a caricature that Republicans are anti-immigrant.
“Again, I don’t know motives, we don’t know motives. I am just telling you demographics. It is a predominantly Hispanic population with a large immigrant community relatively near San Antonio,” Kayyem later added.
In fact, not only should the Biden administration halt immigration enforcement, but Kayyem said Biden should declare the area a “safe harbor.”
“We need the federal government to say right now, everyone is essentially safe harbor right now in terms of immigration status,” she demanded. “We need people to come forward, not to be fearful of immigration status, get their kids, get their family members.
“Because what happens in incidents like this is when we’re going to have a strong police presence, a strong federal presence, we know this: a lot of people do not react — especially if their status is unknown — do not react to police presence as you or I may,” she claimed.
“We want to make sure that they know, despite all the politics going on in Texas right now, it’s the federal government that’s in charge of immigration enforcement, and people are safe,” she went on to say. “Get your kids, get your families together — do not hide. The White House just needs to say that right now.”
Anything else?
Kayyem’s underlying assumption — that a large Hispanic population means there is a large population of immigrants in the U.S. illegally — is an offensive idea and probably wrong.
In fact, according to Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin (R) the Hispanic community is outraged over the border crisis and flood of illegal immigration.
“The Hispanic community is fed up with this. We have a lot of great Hispanic families in our community, and their parents came over the right way,” he said Saturday on Fox News.
“We just keep flooding [immigrants] over and over, and the Hispanic community is fed up with it,” he added.
Texas mayor rips Biden: Hispanic community ‘fed up with it’
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