The Trump immigration farce
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco (1.5 minute read) 
Jeff Sessions is taking a tour of the U.S-Mexico border. He’s doubling-down on an immigration message that, when you scratch beneath the surface, is a rhetorical farce.
His latest strong-man statement is that the Justice Department is targeting members of the violent criminal organization known as MS-13, the Mara Salvatrucha. This is the gang that was hardened in Cetnral America when the U.S. deported Latino gang members. They returned to their homes in El Salvador and Honduras, perfected their criminal organization and became an international crime entity. They eventually reestablished in the U.S.
So yes, they are crime organization, and yes, they have been known to commit acts of ruthless violence. And yes, this is the same violent crime that women and children from Central America flee from when they end up at the border asking for asylum.
These are the same women and children that the understaffed border agents round up and send back.
This is the farce: that while the U.S. government admits that the MS-13 gang is criminally violent, it denies that the women and children who come to our border to ask for asylum are fleeing that same violence.
Then there’s the numbers farce.
The Trump administration touts big numbers, but they don’t hold up to border realities.
For intance, these are government numbers:
4000 + – The number of people prosecuted in new immigration cases in February 2017.
6 – The number of people prosecuted for firearms/unlawful (dangerous criminals) acts in new immigration cases in February 2016.
1,325 – The number of people prosecuted for reentry after being deported in new immigration cases in February 2016.
227 – The number of people prosecuted for bringing in/harboring certain aliens in new immigration cases in February 2016.
39 – The number of people prosecuted for fraud in new immigration cases in February 2016.
15,000 – The number of new border patrol and ICE agents to be hired under a Trump executive order.
2,000 – The border patrol and ICE personnel deficit due to attrition.
40 – The number of new border patrol and ICE agents hired in one month.
35 – The number of years it will take to meet Trump’s border agent hiring goal.
105 – Donald Trump’s age when the goal is reached.
Source: Univision/Media Matters, Los Angeles Times
Michael Vadon