President Trump’s Attacks on “Criminal Aliens”
A story by Philip Bump of the Washington Post on the misleading data released by the Trump administration on immigrant crime makes a series of points worth highlighting:
It has been apparent for more than a year that the Trump administration sought to use the power of the White House to push out negative stories linking immigrants to crime. Shortly after Trump took office, he announced the creation of an office within the Department of Homeland Security called VOICE — Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement office. The ostensible goal, first articulated in a memo from then-Homeland Security head John F. Kelly, was to give a voice to those who suffered at the hands of “criminal aliens” who “routinely victimize Americans and other legal residents.” On a quarterly basis, the president promised, VOICE would release assessments of that victimization.
Immediately, people noted the similarity between that effort and another notorious system of publicizing wrongdoing by a targeted group: The Nazi tactic of including stories about Jewish criminals in material the party published. The Washington Post’s Amanda Erickson has noted that “a regular government report is a far cry from the Nazis’ aggressive, constant drumbeat against the Jews.”
KJ