#albert sun

Jamelle Bouie gives us another excellent column about how JD Vance and the Trump administration lies to further its often illegal and cruel approach to immigration. This is a gift 🎁 link so there is no paywall. Below are some excerpts.

On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance wrote a long defense of the administration’s anti-immigrant rendition program, slamming critics who want the White House to obey a court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. It is a notable example of the lengths the White House has gone to try to deceive the public as it deals with political fallout from its open defiance of the federal judiciary. [...] Vance begins with a lie. “Consider that Joe Biden allowed approximately 20 million illegal aliens into our country.” That is a load-bearing “approximately,” to say the least.... But according to an analysis by FactCheck.org, from 2021 to 2024 Customs and Border Patrol officers stationed there released 2.5 million people into the United States, with notices to report to immigration authorities for further hearings and processing, out of 6.5 million “encounters” across the U.S.-Mexico border and legal ports of entry. In addition, an estimated 1.6 million people evaded law enforcement to enter the country, for a total of 4.1 million people. [...] Vance goes on to assert that this imaginary horde of “20 million illegal aliens” placed “extraordinary burdens on our country” and “committed violent crimes, or facilitated fentanyl and sex trafficking.” It’s been shown again and again that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens do. Stating otherwise is demagogic innuendo meant to short-circuit the rational mind and inflame prejudice. [...] Not content to mislead, the vice president goes on to distort the facts again. “When the media and the far left obsess over an MS-13 gang member and demand that he be returned to the United States for a third deportation hearing, what they’re really saying is they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently.” A reminder that there is no serious evidence that Abrego Garcia is a “MS-13 gang member.” At most, there is a flimsy, uncorroborated accusation from a police officer who was later suspended from the force. And a demand for due process — a demand that everyone has a chance to show that he is innocent until proven guilty — is not a demand to legalize the entire undocumented population of the United States. It is a simple demand to follow the law. [color emphasis added]

There Were No "Open Borders" Under Biden

I want to take the opportunity here to address the the fact that there were NO "open borders" under the Biden administration. That was misleading propaganda perpetuated by Trump Republicans to scare people into voting for them. Although Biden's handling of immigration was often problematic, he NEVER had "open borders."

In fact, according to a Jan. 22, 2025 report by Albert Sun in The New York Times, Biden "deported" (i.e., either removed, returned, or expelled) 4 million people during his 4 years in office; in contrast, Trump "deported" 1.9 million during his first term.

Even the conservative Cato Institute acknowledged in Nov. 2023 that "the Biden DHS is removing 3.5 times as many people per month as the Trump DHS did."

[See more below the cut.]