Blame for the Border Crisis

Using a propaganda technique called “projection,” ABC News and many other media outlets are blaming Trump & the Republicans for the massive flood of illegal immigration caused by Biden & the Democrats.Show more

SOURCES:

In a recent episode of ABC’s World News Tonight, anchor David Muir reported, “For the first time in years, Republicans and Democrats have come up with a bipartisan plan to finally address the border. The other major headline on this late today, the conservative-leaning border patrol union, the officers who patrol the border, endorsing this bipartisan plan. But tonight, the House Speaker saying Republicans in the House are not interested, amid pressure from Donald Trump not to agree to any solution in a presidential election year.

Correspondent Rachel Scott then reported: “Tonight, Senate leaders unveiling the most sweeping border security package in decades. Republican leader Mitch McConnell reminding his party, this is something they wanted for years. [McConnell]: ‘Senate Republicans have insisted, not just for months, but for years, that this urgent crisis demanded action.’ ” https://twitter.com/ABCWorldNews/status/1754701454772945179

99% of Republicans voted for and 100% of Democrats voted the House border security bill passed by Republicans. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023209

The Republican bill would:

• “require DHS to construct at least 900 miles of wall and physical barriers along that border.”
• “limit both the rules of eligibility for aliens to apply for asylum in the United States and the circumstances under which asylum could be granted.”
• “significantly restrict DHS’s ability to grant parole, which permits aliens to temporarily enter the United States.”
• “create new criminal and civil penalties” for people who overstay their visas.
• “require all U.S. employers to use E-Verify, the federal web-based system for confirming eligibility to work.”
https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2023-05/hr2.pdf

The Democrat-controlled Senate hasn’t taken any action on the bill passed by House Republicans. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2/actions

House Republicans offered to negotiate a deal with Senate Democrats by combining their border security bill with aid for Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-vote-republicans-standalone-143-bln-israel-bill-2023-11-02/

A group of 3 Senators spent 4 months behind closed doors crafting the Senate bill.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/02/05/sen_sinema_border_bill_solves_the_crisis_there_is_real_misunderstanding_about_the_border_emergency_authority.html
https://www.newsweek.com/border-bill-was-purposely-hidden-conservative-commentators-rand-paul-1867995

Senators unveiled the bill on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/04/politics/senate-border-foreign-aid-bill/index.html

The Senate bill is 360+ pages long. https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/emergency_national_security_supplemental_bill_text.pdf

Three days after they unveiled the text of the Senate bill, Democrats brought it a vote on February 7. https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2024/02/07/senate-schumer-ukraine-israel-republicans-democrats-border

ABC claims the Senate bill includes “$20 billion to strengthen the border—hiring new officers and border patrol agents. It includes a trigger mechanism. When migrant apprehensions reach 5,000 a day, the border will automatically shut down. And it makes it harder for migrants to claim asylum, expediting the process to address the backlog.” https://twitter.com/ABCWorldNews/status/1754701454772945179

The Senate bill is rife with legalese, and when Fox News host Bret Baier said to Senator Kyrsten Sinema of AZ (the Independent architect of the act) that it was “painful” to read, she replied, “It was.”
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/emergency_national_security_supplemental_bill_text.pdf#page=214
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/02/05/sen_sinema_border_bill_solves_the_crisis_there_is_real_misunderstanding_about_the_border_emergency_authority.html

Senator Chris Murphy of CT (the Democrat architect of the act) spelled out the following loopholes in series of posts on X:

• “The border never closes”
• There is only a “slightly higher asylum screening standard”
• Asylum “claims processed in a non-detained, non-adversarial way”
• “Most asylum seekers can work immediately”
• “brand new right to legal representation for all immigrants”
• “A new pathway to citizenship for Afghan parolees (the Afghan Adjustment Act) and the children of H1B holders”
• “It can only be used for a limited number of days per year. It sunsets in 3 years.”
• “The ports must process a minimum of 1400 claims a day.”
• “Emergency cases that show up in between the ports still need to be accepted”
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1754292302690812129

Without reporting any of Murphy’s statements about the loopholes, ABC aired on Good Morning America the following claim from Murphy: “Many Senate Republicans are going to oppose this bill because it’s too effective because Donald Trump is telling them, “No, keep chaos at the border. Don’t solve the problem because that’s good politics for us.” Well, that’s really bad for the country.” https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1754844542635851968

On World News Tonight, Rachel Scott reported, “Trump wants to run on immigration in November, and today called the deal a “great gift to Democrats, and a death wish for the Republican Party.” Now, many top Republicans who wanted a deal are doing an about-face.” https://twitter.com/ABCWorldNews/status/1754701454772945179

In the same post from Trump’ that ABC quoted, Trump wrote that he opposes the bill because it:

• “only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done”
• “takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans.”
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/111879340091575646

Like ABC News, a wide range of other media outlets reported without evidence that Republicans oppose the bill because it would fix the border crisis:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/06/politics/trump-republicans-immigration/index.html
https://time.com/6589254/border-biden-texas-trump/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/01/31/trump-republicans-stall-biden-bipartisan-border-reform/72400737007/
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/donald-trump-republicans-border
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/briefing/republican-border-bill-ukraine.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/immoral-republicans-rebuke-efforts-kill-immigration-deal-help-trump-rcna135732
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/26/border-crisis-security-senate-texas
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-border-trump-immigration/bf536878-c641-11ee-bbc9-9b5ca9b20779_story.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-blames-biden-for-border-crisis-that-gop-refuses-to-solve
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2024/02/why-republicans-dont-want-to-solve-the-border-problem.html

A longstanding propaganda technique is to falsely accuse others of one’s own misdeeds. This is called projection, and two telltale signs of are quoting people out of context and making baseless assertions about people’s intentions. In the words of scholarly works that detail this strategy:

• Start “by injecting the public with misleading information as if it came from these adversaries.”
• State some “facts” to establish credibility but mix them with “falsehoods” about “intentions and interpretations.”
• Then “slip from the facts, which would demand factual judgment, to moral terrain and to ethical judgment.”
https://www.justfactsdaily.com/how-to-thwart-the-nefarious-propaganda-technique-of-projection

For decades, Democrats have refused to deport the vast bulk of illegal immigrants, allowed them into the nation based on meritless claims of asylum, offered them more welfare, established sanctuary cities and entire states, and promised to make them citizens with full voting rights. https://www.justfacts.com/immigration#illegal_1990

The Biden administration took those policies to another level. https://www.justfacts.com/immigration#illegal_biden

The Biden administration repeatedly insisted the “border is secure” from 2021 through 2023:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%E2%80%9Cborder+is+secure%E2%80%9D&newwindow=1&sca_esv=fea8e79187cfd119&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F2021%2Ccd_max%3A12%2F31%2F2023&tbm=

Under Biden, illegal immigrant gotaways have risen by 5.7 times, border crossing deaths have grown by 2.5 times, and migrant encounters have skyrocketed to heights that make prior surges look small by comparison. https://www.justfacts.com/immigration#illegal_border

An NBC News poll conducted Jan. 26–30, 2024 found that “Trump has the edge on securing the border and controlling immigration (35 points over Biden).” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-biden-trump-economy-presidential-race-rcna136834

An CBS News poll conducted Jan. 3–5, 2024 found that 68% of U.S. adults “disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling matters concerning the U.S.-Mexico border.” https://www.scribd.com/document/697109678/cbsnews-20240107-PDF2#1fullscreen=1

ABC News footage is reproduced under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law for “purposes such as criticism” and “comment” (17 U.S.C. §107). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107

Photos of the following politicians are reproduced under these Creative Commons open licenses:
Schumer: https://www.flickr.com/people/sdmc/
Sanders: https://www.flickr.com/people/sdmc/
Pelosi: https://www.flickr.com/photos/afge/
H. Clinton: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cornstalker/
B. Clinton: https://www.flickr.com/photos/veni/
Obama: https://www.flickr.com/photos/12863058@N08/
Biden: https://www.flickr.com/photos/prachatai/