This afternoon President Trump gave a press conference addressing the “immigration crisis.” Linda Chavez, former Reagan official and director of Becoming America Initiative, released the following statement:
The president’s rambling, incoherent statement on illegal immigration was filled with distortions and outright lies. The president said we need more people because companies need workers, and yet he refused to acknowledge that our current laws do not allow sufficient numbers of people to immigrate legally. He characterized the people seeking asylum, travelling in a caravan some a thousand miles away from the border as “an invasion,” a “dangerous influx,” and “unbelievably rough.” In fact, many are women and children fleeing violence in their home countries. The president says he will use the U.S. military to repel the asylum seekers. He even suggested the use of lethal force by the military, though he said he hoped it “won’t be necessary.” His real intent is to inflame his base prior to Tuesday’s election in the most blatant abuse of the military for political purposes in the modern era.