Open Borders: Where Bernie Agreed with Trump

There is such a thing as left-wing populism on the issue of immigration, both legal and illegal. When Bernie Sanders called open borders a "Koch Brothers proposal" which would make the poor in America far worse off, was he wrong?

It was the same thing Cesar Chavez thought about the impact of illegal aliens on his unionized farm workers. “As long as we have a poor country bordering California, it’s going to be very difficult to win strikes." See his 1972 interview with KQED News in which he explained the need for boycotts when growers can use illegal aliens as strike-breakers. Was he wrong? (Trigger warning: he doesn't just call them "illegal aliens.")

Hey, if Trump's brand of right-wing populism doesn't succeed, its left-wing counterpart might get a shot.

The State of the Union, Past and Present

This year's State of the Union address was scheduled for January 29, but, given the current brawl between President Trump and Speaker of the House Pelosi, who knows whether - or where - it will be given.

But if President Trump is even half the internet troller he seems to be, I think he should tweet out highlights from Bill Clinton's SOTU address of 1995, in which Trump's predecessor deplored the violations of law and the public burdens of - in his words, words which are rarely spoken on Capitol Hill today - illegal aliens. There isn't much Trump could add to the clip embedded above.

Notice that Clinton got a standing ovation from those remarks. Say, were Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in the audience then? I think they were.

Notice as well his reference to the Barbara Jordan Commission report, which had absolutely Trumpian recommendations. In particular, see its chapter on Curbing Unlawful Migration (starting on page 118), which concluded that "reducing the employment magnet is the linchpin of a comprehensive strategy to deter unlawful immigration" [page 128], and called for "restricting eligibility of illegal aliens for publicly-funded services or assistance except those made available on an emergency basis or for similar compelling reasons to protect public health and safety or to conform to constitutional requirements" [page 136] and "continued attention to improved means for identifying and removing criminal aliens with a final order of deportation" [page 149].

The report also called for scaling back family chain-migration, the prioritization of highly-skilled immigrants, elimination of the admission of unskilled workers, and elimination of the diversity visa lottery. It further recommended capping legal immigration admissions to only 550,000 per year, and refugee admissions to only 50,000.

President Trump could adopt that whole report as his present agenda.