It’s hard to overstate just how much Donald Trump has pressed the idea that there is impending doom at the southern border of the United States, and that if Americans don’t give in and pay billions for the wall that the vast majority of the country doesn’t want and thinks is pointless, we will be overrun with illegals practically swarming into our homes and eating every last one of our Trader Joe’s organic stone ground blue maize tortillas.
I don’t actually know if that’s a real product, but I do know that this invasion isn’t a real thing, despite his tweets begging us to believe otherwise:
Tremendous numbers of people are coming up through Mexico in the hopes of flooding our Southern Border. We have sent additional military. We will build a Human Wall if necessary. If we had a real Wall, this would be a non-event!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2019
The military! He sure loves that word. Of course, our military commanders have made clear that they are not there to shoot or kill anyone or even act as law enforcement, since that isn’t their mission nor included in their job descriptions. In fact, there’s only one service branch whose job it is to maintain order here within our very own borders — the National Guard — and those forces aren’t commanded by the President, but by the governors of the states they represent.
So which states have National Guard troops stationed near the border? Well, only California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas even share a border with Mexico. And now, the second governor of a border state in the last week has pulled their National Guard forces away from the border — in a complete repudiation of Trump’s rhetoric about the “crisis” of immigrants entering America.
California Governor Gavin Newsom follows after New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in removing their troops from the border, both issuing similar statements. Newsom is delivering his State of the State address on Tuesday, and is expected to include in his remarks:
The Border ‘emergency’ is a manufactured crisis. This is our answer to the White House: No more division, xenophobia or nativism.”
Lujan Grisham signed her own order less than a week ago, saying:
I reject the federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border, along which are some of the safest communities in the country … New Mexico will not take part in the president’s charade of border fear-mongering by misusing our diligent National Guard troops.”
Ironically, Trump himself can’t seem to decide whether there’s an emergency at the border or whether we should all just “loosen up” since everything is hunky-dory:
The Democrats are so self righteous and ANGRY! Loosen up and have some fun. The Country is doing well!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2019
It seems like even the President knows there’s no “crisis” happening. When will he stop lying to the rest of the country?
Featured image via screen capture
