Which surprises us only because the Deporter in Chief is no longer in the White House.
For years, Americans refused to speak out or protest as Barack Obama deported record numbers of people out of the United States.
It was February 8 2014 when the staid publication THE ECONOMIST ran "Barack Obama, deporter-in-chief" -- an article which noted:
America is expelling illegal immigrants at nine times the rate of 20 years ago (see article); nearly 2m so far under Barack Obama, easily outpacing any previous president. Border patrol agents no longer just patrol the border; they scour the country for illegals to eject. The deportation machine costs more than all other areas of federal criminal law-enforcement combined. It tears families apart and impoverishes America.
Sadly, it had already been pointed out two years before, July 2012, by Alex Nowrasteh at FORBES with "President Obama: Deporter-in-Chief:"
Obama’s DHS has so far deported more people than during the first six and a half years of George W. Bush’s administration. Just shy of 1.5 million unauthorized immigrants have been forcefully deported from the United States under Napolitano’s leadership. These annual deportation figures are higher that at any other time in U.S. history, pushing the backlog for deportation cases to a record 314,147 this June. The government is apprehending unauthorized immigration so quickly that it cannot effectively process them all.
By August of last year, Serena Marshall (ABC NEWS) would report, "According to governmental data, the Obama administration has deported more people than any other president's administration in history. In fact, they have deported more than the sum of all the presidents of the 20th century."
Donald Trump's insisting that the guidelines/rules for immigration from some countries (Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Iran and Sudan) be reviewed before people from those countries will be allowed to immigrate.
As Rebecca notes what is a hold has been promoted as a "ban."
Everything has to alarmist these days.
Everything has to be false.
According to the White House, President Donald Trump has issued the following executive orders:
January 28, 2017
January 24, 2017
January 20, 2017
Last week on THE VIEW, former leading lady of film (it ended in 1997) Whoopi Goldberg insisted that, "I think the difference in what you're saying in terms of executive action is at least it took President Obama, at least a couple of months in, and this one [Donald Trump] has came in and he said, 'We're doing this and this, and this.' And I understand that,"
She apparently understands nothing.
POLITIFACT rated her statement "Pants On Fire" (as in: "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"):
Goldberg said Obama waited "at least a couple of months" to issue executive actions. That’s not correct; Obama issued an executive order on his first day in office, and 16 with in his first month.
Neither ABC nor Whoopi has issued a correction.
ABC? Correction?
They did issue one January 24th:
Nightline aired a segment Monday night about the first three days of the new administration including Sean Spicer’s statement to the press on Saturday. As part of the report, we interviewed former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. In editing the piece for air, his quote was shortened and as a result his opinions mischaracterized. We are fixing the piece online to include his full quote and context. We apologize and regret the error.
The correction only came after Ari Fleischer called ABC out at his Twitter account.
Last week also saw Josh Rogin (WASHINGTON POST) reported, of the State Department, "The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior Foreign Service officers who don't want to stick around for the Trump era." Yet again, a much repeated story fell apart. Zack Beauchamp's "A viral Washington Post story about State Department resignations is very misleading" (VOX) was an attempt to correct that record.
Last week also saw the false report -- from THE WASHINGTON POST and THE NEW YORK TIMES -- that Donald Trump -- via executive order -- had lifted a ban on the use of CIA black sites. As Betty documented at her site, this 'report' also quickly fell apart.
One has to wonder about all these reports and claims from last week that kept exploding.
What's going on?
Now more than ever?
The truth matters now more than ever?
Seems like it would have mattered, to an outlet called FOREIGN POLICY, now more than ever after (or even during) the lies that led to the Iraq War.
Hmmm.
It didn't matter then but now it matters?
What's happened?
Oh, right Donald Trump is in the White House now.
SLATE is a little more upfront as they beg for money, right?
They're using Donald Trump to raise money.
Which is what FOREIGN POLICY is doing.
And their lies and their fake news?
It's click bait.
It drives visitors to the site.
For all their supposed outrage over 'fake news,' they keep putting it out.
Today, Donald issued the following:
Statement Regarding Recent Executive Order Concerning Extreme Vetting
“America is a proud nation of immigrants and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression, but we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border. America has always been the land of the free and home of the brave.
We will keep it free and keep it safe, as the media knows, but refuses to say. My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months. The seven countries named in the Executive Order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror. To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting.
This is not about religion - this is about terror and keeping our country safe. There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order. We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days.
I have tremendous feeling for the people involved in this horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria. My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as President I will find ways to help all those who are suffering.”
“America is a proud nation of immigrants and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression, but we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border. America has always been the land of the free and home of the brave.
We will keep it free and keep it safe, as the media knows, but refuses to say. My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months. The seven countries named in the Executive Order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror. To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting.
This is not about religion - this is about terror and keeping our country safe. There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order. We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days.
I have tremendous feeling for the people involved in this horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria. My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as President I will find ways to help all those who are suffering.”
A "ban." It keeps being called that.
But it wasn't called that in 2011.
Glenn Greenwald (INTERCEPT) is no fan of Donald's executive order. But he does feel it's important for the context of it to be provided:
The suggestion that
Trump protected the countries with which he does business is
preposterous. The reality is that his highly selective list reflects
longstanding U.S. policy: Indeed, Obama restricted visa rights for
these same seven countries, and the regimes in Riyadh and Cairo have
received special U.S. protection for decades, long before Trump.
Beyond U.S. support for the world’s worst regimes, what primarily shapes Trump’s list is U.S. aggression: Five of the seven predominantly Muslim countries on Trump’s list were ones bombed by Obama, while the other two (Iran and Sudan) were punished with heavy sanctions. Thus, Trump is banning immigrants from the very countries that the U.S. government — under both Republicans and Democrats — has played a key role in destabilizing and destroying, as Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, with surprising candor, noted this week:
Chris Murphy Verified account @ChrisMurphyCT
Beyond U.S. support for the world’s worst regimes, what primarily shapes Trump’s list is U.S. aggression: Five of the seven predominantly Muslim countries on Trump’s list were ones bombed by Obama, while the other two (Iran and Sudan) were punished with heavy sanctions. Thus, Trump is banning immigrants from the very countries that the U.S. government — under both Republicans and Democrats — has played a key role in destabilizing and destroying, as Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, with surprising candor, noted this week:
Chris Murphy Verified account
We bomb your country, creating a humanitarian nightmare, then lock you inside. That's a horror movie, not a foreign policy.
It is critical to recognize and fight against the unique elements of Trump’s extremism, but also to acknowledge that a substantial portion of it has roots in political and cultural developments that long precede him. Immigration horror stories — including families being torn apart — are nothing new. As ABC News noted last August, “The Obama administration has deported more people than any other president’s administration in history. In fact, they have deported more than the sum of all the presidents of the 20th century.”
And the reason Trump is able so easily to tap into a groundswell of anti-Muslim fears and bigotry is because they have been cultivated for 16 years as the central fuel driving the war on terror. There are factions on both the center-left and right that are primarily devoted to demonizing Muslims and Islam. A government can get away with bombing, invading, and droning the same group of people for more than 15 years only by constantly demonizing and dehumanizing that group and maintaining high fear levels, which is exactly what the U.S. has done under two successive administrations. Both the Bush and Obama administrations ushered in all-new and quite extreme civil liberties erosions aimed primarily if not exclusively at Muslims.
Trump did not appear out of nowhere. He is the logical and most grotesque expression of a variety of trends we have allowed to fester: endless war, a virtually omnipotent presidency, unlimited war powers from spying to due process-free imprisonment to torture to assassinations, repeated civil liberties erosions in the name of illusory guarantees of security, and the sustained demonization of Muslims as scary, primitive, uniquely violent Others.
THE INTERCEPT can provide that context because they're dedicated to a little bit something more than click bait.
Last week, make no mistake, was a media collapse as THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, NIGHTLINE, THE VIEW and others ran fake news.
There's no other word for what they provided unless you want to use "lies" -- which would be accurate.
As many outlets are using Donald Trump -- fear of Donald Trump -- to raise money, it should be clear that the fake news, the lies, isn't just happening.
People are rushing to post their 'scoops,' at best, because they know they'll get high traffic from another story about that awful Donald.
At worst?
At worst, the media is intentionally being dishonest to increase their traffic.