Kelly on the Bunny

Megyn Kelly starts out by making one valid point... then goes off the rails.

Megyn Kelly just shouting “FOOTBALL IS OURS” at Piers Morgan about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show is the perfect example of this moment in time. Put it in a time capsule and send it out into space. pic.twitter.com/oTuiwI9xBR

— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) February 9, 2026

In the excerpt presented in this tweet, Kelly is seen arguing

I'm sorry, Piers, but to get up there and perform the whole, the whole show in Spanish is a middle finger to the rest of America. Who gives a damn that we have 40-40 million Spanish speakers in the United States. We have 310 million who don't speak a lick of Spanish.

Of course, it's a "middle finger to the rest of America"; a middle finger to the portion of the USA, the vast majority of the country, which does not speak English. Take a point away from Kelly for referring to her (and my) country as "America" instead of the United States of America, which is ironic given "though the United States of America is colloquially referred to as just 'America,' Bad Bunny reminded the audience- and perhaps some U.S. politicians- that America is the entire western hemisphere, as he named [sic] checked dozens of countries as the show concluded."

If Mr. Bunny has thus impelled some prominent Americans to refer to our country, properly, as the "United States of America" (or USA), he will have performed an important service.  If so, it will be- again- ironic that it was effected by an awful rabbit who rarely uses his real name, Benito Antonio Martiniez Ocasio. (Fat chance of that happening, though.)

Kelly continues by making a point which is demonstrably inaccurate as she contends (and yes, Megyn, we all caught the Spanish accent you inelegantly tried with "Latinos")

This is supposed to be a unifying event for the country, not for the Latinos, not for one small group, but for the country, not for one small group, but for the country. We don't need a black national anthem...

As we would have responded as children on the playground decades ago, "who says?" Is there a stature, rule, or even guideline which states that the halftime show of the Super Bowl is to be "a unifying event for the country?"  Spoiler alert: no.

Open your eyes, woman! Most Americans already have decided that they are, or are not, fans of the NFL. Among the tens of millions of Americans for whom Spanish is their first language, there are many who have not seriously considered professional football. If they weren't going to watch the game otherwise, most surely would check out this guy singing in Spanish- and the others, because of the countroversy engendered.

But the NFL has an even greater motivation for turning the halftime show over to an internationally popular, Spanish-speaking rapper. The 2025 season which concluded Sunday included six international games, one each in Dublin, Berlin, and Madrid, and three in London.  In 2026, there will be one game each played in Paris, Munich, Melbourne, Rio, Madrid, Mexico City, and three again in London. The NFL wants to market itself everywhere it can be profitable, and that includes the Spanish-speaking world. The billions keep piling up and the league, and Commissioner Roger Goodell, don't care whose face gets slapped. Capitalism, baby! (To her credit, Ms. Kelly seems never to have embraced the term "populist.")

The interview continued with Kelly getting something iwith immensely important implications legally and objectively incorrect. Piers Morgan asked her "O.K., what is the national language- officially- the national language of the United States of America?" 

The guest replied "I mean, English and there have been-" To that, Morgan countered "No, no. Hang on.You don't have one. You don't have one. The truth is you don't have an official language."

Well done, Piers! (Exclamation Point Day.)  Morgan is correct. It turns out that- notwithstanding the President's effort- apparently somewhat successful- to muddy the waters, the Executive Order signed by Donald Trump merely applies to the executive branch, and then only in limited fashion. As explained here

On March 1, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14224, “Designating English as the Official Language of The United States,” which, as the name suggests, declares English as the official language of the U.S. The executive order also revokes Executive Order 13166, “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency,” signed by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Executive Order (EO) 13166 required federal agencies and recipients of federal funding to improve access to their services for those with limited English proficiency (LEP). To comply with EO 13166, federal agencies released various resources and guidance on how entities should achieve better access to their services. Those guidance documents were key resources on standards, best practices, and technical assistance that helped government agencies comply with the executive order

The Trump administration’s EO 14224 lifts those requirements — meaning that federal agencies and recipients of federal funding are no longer required to implement plans to ensure that LEP individuals can access their services. EO 14224 requires the U.S. Attorney General to withdraw policy guidance documents that were previously issued under EO 13166 and provide “updated guidance” that takes into account EO 14224….

The Trump administration’s Executive Order 14224 is not statutory. As an executive order, it does not have the power to change existing federal laws and statutes. The order’s authority does not extend beyond the executive branch and is technically limited to telling federal agencies how to implement a statute. To declare English as the official language of the U.S., Congress would have to approve legislation establishing an official language and the president would have to sign it.

Though the NFL did give a middle finger to most of the country, in so doing the league was not thinking of brown or white, but of green. Further, the NFL does not owe Americans a "unifying" halftime show or even any halftime show at all. And there is no official language in the USA.

Nonetheless, Kelly's strident criticism does raise an issue which is critical and which, while below the radar, should be provocative. How important, if at all, is it that a national (also international, obviously) event which draws the attention of well over 100 million Americans be unifying?  That may be considered in the next post which, thankfully, would not be as long as this one.

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Endangered

Decades ago, we had the "if you don't love it, leave it" crowd, as reflected in the unfortunately good country song "The Fightin' Side of Me."  We no longer hear those exact words but we have their descendants, the "shut up and think as we tell you" crowd.

On Twiiter/X, yhey may have "HOOD CONSERVATIVE" (Lavern Spicer) in their bio. Or "MAGA.". Or "America First" or "Patriot." Or a biblical verse. However, the rude, bellicose sentiment always is the same.

“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now… Just because I wear the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.”
- Team USA Olympic Skier Hunter Hess

The anti-ICE, liberal athletes are already insufferable at the Olympics…

If… pic.twitter.com/yn7ruEHbFr

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) February 7, 2026

Hunter Hess, identified as Team USA freestyle skater, states

I have mixed emotions to represent the USA now, I think. It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on I'm not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren't...

If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it. Just because I wear the flag, doesn't mean I represent evetything that's going on in the U.S.  I want to do it for my friends, my family, the people that supported me getting here.

The critics of such athletes have sunk to an even lower level than the "if you don't love it, leave it" crowd of yore. The old timers believed that individuals who criticize the country should get out. These folks believe if an individuals criticize a man- a human being, the President- they are not worthy of participating in the Olympics (so much for the  advocates of "merit"). As one of them put it, "take your uniform off" and "stay in Italy."

Even more disturbing to some of us is the frequent reference to God and/or Christian symbolism in the bios. One refers to Christ and 1 Peter 3:15.  Another is "MAGA Christian."  They all are exclusionary and, less obviously, elitist.

Unsurprisingly, that echoes President Trump. Christian Peter Wehner recently wrote in The Atlantic

In a rambling, 75-minute speech at the Prayer Breakfast yesterday, we saw the quintessential Trump. His comments were grievance-filled, narcissistic, conspiratorial, factually false, divisive, and insulting. He referred to his critics as “lunatics.” He engaged in projection, comparing them to “dictators” and “the gestapo.” He labeled Republican Representative Thomas Massie a “moron” because he won’t cast legislative votes the way Trump wants. Joe Biden is “Crooked Joe,” while Jacob Frey is “the horrible fake mayor” of Minneapolis. Trump praised El Salvador’s authoritarian President Nayib Bukele—Bukele has referred to himself as “the world’s coolest dictator”—for his “very strong prisons.” (The prison that Trump celebrates, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, known as CECOT, is notorious for its cruel and inhumane conditions.) Trump emphasized that Bukele—who also spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast—is “one of my favorite people.”

And yet, in the very same speech in which his critics were labeled “lunatics” and “moron” and “Gestapo,” President

Trump took credit for churches “coming back stronger than ever” and for religion being “hotter than ever.” He claimed he has “done more for religion than any other president”—apparently, before the age of Trump, Christians couldn’t say “Merry Christmas” in public—and argued that his predecessors in the White House “bailed out” on religion. “I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat. I really don’t,” he said, adding, “They cheat.”

The President invoked the term "religion" twenty times, though his most brazen and transparently phony probably was "all of these good things I'm doing, including for religion. You know, religion is back now hotter than ever."  He added "but I said even though I did that and so many other things, I named things, I said I won't qualify. I'm not going to make it to heaven."

When evangelicals mention "religion," they're invariably doing so in a neutral matter or- more frequently- as a negative (source: Gemini- but accurate).  They usually view religion as a pejorative to describe non-man-made efforts to earn salvation. a non-denominational, evangelical and Protestant site explains

Christianity is not about signing up for a religion.... God eants us to know Him, to draw near to Him, to pray to Him, and love Him above everything.  That is not religion; that is a relationship.

Nonetheless, in what is no more surprising than hypocritical, Wehner notes "the audience of some 3,500- the great majority of whom undoubtedly claim to be followers of Jesus- responded to Trump's remarks with a standing ovation." In an article written a couple of weeks earlier, he had observed that the Trump Administration "has welcomed Christians into a theological twilight zone, where the beatitudes are invoked on behalf of a political movement with authoritarian tendencies."

This applies to many MAGA tweeters, whose allegiance to the political movement clearly outweighs their devotion to God, Scripure, of the Christian faith. This attempt to merge Christianity with personality-driven, far-right politics, imperils the future of Christianity, or what, the President wishes to have us believe, he means by "religion." 

So, too, is there a connection when Wehner argues persuasively

Unless you've spent time in the evangelical world, fully appreciating the level of antipathy that exists toward Democrats and progressives is difficult. The only thing that exceeds it is the loathing reserved for the Christians and conservatives who broke with trump because their commitment to their faith, and to cherished moral truths, required them to speak ou against him.

Though Wehner was speaking primarily about theologians and members of the clergy, his criticism applies also to many MAGA tweeters, whose allegiance to a personality-driven, far right political movement clearly outweighs whatever their devotion to God, Scripture, or the Christian faith. The Olympic skater maintained, referring to what evidently are his cherished moral truths, "if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it."  

Enraged, the Trump disciples lashed out at Hess. Speaking not specifically about such individuals but more generally

Huge numbers of American fundamentalists and evangelicals—not just cultural Christians, but also those who faithfully attend church and Bible-study sessions and prayer gatherings—prefer the MAGA Jesus to the real Jesus. Few of them would say so explicitly, though, because the cognitive dissonance would be too unsettling. And so they have worked hard to construct rationalizations. It’s rather remarkable, really, to see tens of millions of Christians validate, to themselves and to one another, a political movement led by a malignant narcissist—who is driven by hate and bent on revenge, who mocks the dead, and who delights in inflicting pain on the powerless. The wreckage to the Christian faith is incalculable, yet most evangelicals will never break with him. They have invested too much of themselves and their identity in Trump and what he stands for.

They will never acknowledge that damage: subtle, persistent, and immeasurable.

 

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Bias and Timidity, Wrapped Into One

This is a clever tweet, because it illuminates the habit of this White House to offer shifting explanations for an outrage:

First: “it’s fake”

Then: “it’s real but he’s trolling you”

Now: “it was a staffer that posts to his account without him having any knowledge of it”

Soon: “it’s a hoax”

— Cooper (@justcuuper) February 6, 2026

He was referring to President Donald Trump's post on his Untruth Social 

late Thursday night of a video that included a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted with the bodies of apes.

After backlash, the White House at about noon Friday said the post had been taken down from the president's page.

The roughly minutelong video, shared by Trump at 11:44 p.m. ET on Thursday, largely focused on debunked claims about the 2020 election.

At the end of the video, the Obamas' faces appear abruptly and without explanation for seconds with the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" playing over it. The video then ends back on similar imagery of the conspiracy video footage.

A few Republicans (not many), such as Senator Tim Scott, a black Republican from South Carolina, have reacted appropriately. However, John James, a black US Representative and two-time unsuccessful GOP candidate for governor of Michigan, did not.

I was shocked and appalled by that post.

I know the President. He is not racist.

I’m glad to see that trash has been taken down. https://t.co/GJgUNvRSN6

— John James (@JohnJamesMI) February 6, 2026

Well, actually, Donald Trump is a racist. We've suspected that for many years, well before on Deccember 16, 2023

 “They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told the crowd at a rally in New Hampshire. “That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”

Trump then repeated the use of “poisoning” in a post on his social media website Truth Social, saying overnight in an all-caps post, that “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation. They’re coming from prisons, from mental institutions — from all over the world.”

The term “blood poisoning” was used by Hitler in his manifesto “Mein Kampf,” in which he criticized immigration and the mixing of races. “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning,” Hitler wrote."

"Poisoning the blood of our country" is not using a dogwhistle but screaming "racist." Whatever the valid explanation for Thursday's reprehensible video, Donald Trump is a racist and almost certainly has been for a long time. However, he could , if not make amends, show real leadership. He could say it was a mistake to post this, then find the person or persons responsible for it, and fire them.

However, that would require real leadership, which Donald would much rather fake than demonstrate.  However, to be fair and non-partisan, this may be common among two-term presidents. The last two-term president and the last two-term Democratic president since Bill Clinton, has responded in a starkly indirect way.

To all the athletes representing @TeamUSA: I'm so proud of you. Your talent and perseverance have brought you to this moment, and Michelle and I will be joining Americans from across the country cheering you on.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 7, 2026

Oh so bold. The man who is serving in the office Barack Obama held for eight years shows his true colors (no pun intended), working indirectly with Russian president Vladimir Putin to break up NATO, and set federal law enforcement upon both illegal immigratns and legal immigrants in a brutal and punitive manner. Membes of Obama's own party are swinging hard at Donald Trump for a social media post depicting Barack and wife Michelle as animals. Carrying water for him, they are, and the ex-President so boldly tweets out a message "cheering you on."

Audacious! Courageous! In Obama's defense, former President George W. Bush has said nothing about Trump's message, and won't. He, too, was a two-term President and unlike Barack Obama- who has said a little about Trump's immigration tactics- Bush has said nothing. 

I'm not sure what that says about us as voters and as a people, but it probably is nothing good. Still, we deserve much better than Donald J. Trump- the one who is a clear-cut, palpable bigot and. though less obvious to the naked eye, the fellow for whom leadership is a four-letter word.

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Ethnicity and Federal Agents

This blog's favorite blogger, Steve M. of No More Mr. Nice Blog, has written an excellent post with an unfortunate title. He critiques the "Stephen Miller Paid Latino Thugs to Murder Alex Pretti" by empty wheel's Marci Wheeler with "Overthinking the Ethnicity of Alex Pretti's Killers." SM first refers to the Pro Publica article which reported 

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez....

Ochoa is a Border Patrol agent who joined CBP in 2018. Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works for CBP’s Office of Field Operations. He is assigned to a special response team, which conducts high-risk operations like those of police SWAT units.

He then quotes Wheeler as emphasizing

Alfredo Mancillas Jr. was found in St. Paul last Tuesday, passed out drunk in his illegally-parked car, covered in his own vomit....

The two heavily masked ICE agents who snatched Brad Lander last June are “a Pakistani Muslim immigrant who lives in Brighton Beach” and “an Indo-Guyanese gentleman who lives in South Ozone Park.”

There are a lot of reasons Stephen Miller’s goons wear masks. To terrify the communities they invade. To make it harder to shame them. To make it harder to tie them to other crimes they may have committed....

But there is accumulating evidence that a big reason these goons hide their faces is to hide that the white nationalist project Stephen Miller is pursuing — like virtually everything else in America — relies on brown people to do the hard work. Miller can only sustain the myth of white self-reliance by hiding the faces of those who murder white men at his behest in the streets of Blue cities....

They’re trying to hide how much even their deeply racist project is helpless without brown labor.

I think this misunderstands the way right-wingers look at race. Some are pure bigots in the David Duke/Nick Fuentes mold. They hate anyone who isn't white and Christian. And even those who don't fall into this category want to live in an America in which white male heterosexual Christians run pretty much everything.

But the people hoping to build a white ethnostate are always in tension with those on the right who proudly point to everyone of color who seems to have "escaped" from "the liberal plantation." The organizers of Trump's campaign rallies seemed happy to have the candidate speak with "BLACKS FOR TRUMP" signs in the background. Trump embraced Kanye West before West became too toxic. And Republican candidates of color -- Herschel Walker in Georgia, Mark Robinson in North Carolina, Royce White in Minnesota -- have won Republican primaries throughout the Trump era. In the Florida governor's race, Byron Donalds leads all other candidates in Republican primary polling by more than 30 points, and in polling of the Ohio GOP gubernatorial primary, Vivek Ramaswamy's lead is more than 50 points. Most Republicans enjoy pointing to these figures and accusing liberals of being "the real racists."

Wheeler's framing implies that Miller's non-white immigration agents are laboring in a state of pseudo-enslavement, or at least doing the work reluctantly because there's nothing else available. That's belied by what the ProPublica story tells us about one of the agents....

This is an accurate reading of the right and a critically important point to make. Some are "pure bigots" while a larger number are proud to trumpet (pun intended) support of their cause by blacks so they can accuse liberals of being "the  real racists," as SM recognizes.

But there is something else going on. Whites generally, and conservative whites specifically, are tired of accusations of racism directed toward them, or what they perceive as such criticism. They are happy and relieved whenever individuals such as Herschel Walker, Mark Robinson, Royce White, or Byron Donalds rear their black head, as long as those individuals are on their side. They believe that proves they are not racist and legitimizes their conservative viewpoints. It's not only progressives, liberals, moderates, and centrists who want to be recognized as open-minded; the right does, also.

That was key to Barack Obama's success. Of course, few conservative Republicans- as the vast majority of Republicans are- would vote for him because they were, obviously Republicans. However, that left many moderates, and  especially centrists, who comforted themselves by voting for the man who would become the first black President.  It frees them, as SM argues, to accuse Democrats themselves as being "the real racists." Then in an off-year election, they could vote Republican, having already done their part to prove they were open-minded.

Yet, SM is wrong insofar as he's maintaining that we are overemphasizing race in considering the ethnicity of the killers of Alex Pretti.  He says the apparent killers "shared the mindset that compels white men to become immigration officers."

Well, sure, that is accurate. But it is too easy, implying that it is a white mindset that impels such injustice or brutality. One of his readers comments "there's a lotta men who are hungry, and lack, a sense of belonging and meaning in their lives, and a sense of control and power, and being given a  gun  and being made part of a group with a mission can be very attractive, whatever their ethnicity."  Less elegantly or thoughtfully, another realizes (emphasis his) "ALL ethnicities have assholes."  And I would add: "and bigots."

These all are valid critiques of Wheeler's primary thesis, as is the one from another commenter who notes that many border patrol agents

are Hispanics whose families have been there for generations, if not since Texas was Mexican. Even more recent arrivals may despise those trying to come in now as poorer and somehow less worthy than they, their parents or grandparents were. Also, they are more likely to feel directly threatened by competition for jobs by the newcomers than most.

Doubtless, Border Parol has always been far more aggressive on the southern border than elsewhere and coverage of the aggression and illegality has been limited and localized

It's typical that it never occurred to Trump, Miller, Noem and the rest that South texas Border Patrol aggressiveness and disregard for law would appal residents of Minneapolis, nor that people in the rest of the country, including rred areas, would be outraged and disgusted by it, not cowed by it.

This seems to me a far more likely explanation for Stephen Miller "relying on brown people to do the hard work" of "maintaing the myth of white self-releance." Yet, all of this- Marci Wheeler's speculative theory, Steve M's cogent rebuttal, and the wise remarks largely buttressing the rebuttal- pertain only to the perpetrators.

Closing the circle would require consideration also of the victims, as it does in the matter of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their co-conspirators..

This, the left does not want to dwell on. And in a dirty little secret, centrists generally would be even more loathe to address it.

And that is this: Renee Good and Alex Pretti are both white. Obvious? Yes.  Mentioned? No.

It was a fundamental tenet of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 that brutal law enforcement was not only focused on blacks but was directed virtually exclusively toward "people of color." It needn't have been stated; we all just knew that blacks were the sole targets of police officers acting badly.  

Unlike today and especially during campaign 2024, actual critics of the protest were few.. Conservatives much preferred the slogan "Blue Lives Matter" to substantive condemnation of the movement. There was some, but relatively muted, criticsm of the blue lives matter argument. By contrast, the slogan "All Lives Matter" was consistently attacked as being racially insensitive, if not racist.

This was a response not only from the left. Moderates and centrists who should have known better, many of them probably knowing better, went along for the ride.

We now know better, yet still refuse to acknowledge it. ICE is practicing racial profiling, but much less out of racial bias than because it has implemented quotas and stopping people who appear to look Latino gets the numbers up. We've learned also that if an individual gets in the way, such as by filming an ICE agent or border patrol officer, being white will not spare the activist from harassment or worse..

So race, as Marci Wheeler believes, is a factor. It usually is. Nonetheless, as Steve M. and most of his readers evidently believe, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and thuggery is just thuggery.

 

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Unlawful Not so Simple

This merits clarification.

No. "The fact they're here illegally" isn't itself a crime.

“Illegal presence” isn’t a crime. It’s civil. See INS v. Lopez-Mendoza (1984).

He also mentions visa overstays (about half of unlawful presence). Those aren’t crimes either. It's a civil process.

Crimes do exist for… https://t.co/0GOuNcHQzL

— Rob Doar (@robdoar) February 2, 2026

 

Te following is the applicable portion of the interview of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday,February by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  They are being released across the country as well by judges. And the president said he was going to prioritize those who had criminal records, but about 70 percent at least of those who have been detained don't have criminal records.

BLANCHE:  Well, just -- hang on. The fact that they're here illegally is a crime. And so when you say they don't have criminal records, they are -- by their presence being here without status, having come into this country illegally or overstayed illegally, that is a crime. And so, we have to be careful.

And you're right, there is a schism in the law right now about whether an illegal alien can be held pending their proceeding or whether they need to be released on bail. We very strongly believe that they should be held and there's a bunch of appellate cases.

So that's another example of something where a number of district court judges have reached a conclusion that we very much believe is contrary to law and there will be an appellate court and ultimately, probably the Supreme Court that will be asked to interpret that. So -- so, we should be -- we should wait before we withhold judgment until the appellate courts have had their opportunity to weigh in.

The tweet is interesting.  A close reading of INS v. Lopez-Mendoza (1984) would suggest that, consistent with Doar's interpretation, that mere presence of an immigrant illegally present in the USA is not a criminal offense. In her majority opinion, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Connor ruled against Lopez-Mendoza, stating "the mere fact of an illegal arrest has no bearing on a subsequent hearing."

Nonetheless, in his dissent, Justice White noted "unregistered presence in this country, without more, ante at 468 U.S. 1047, does not constitute a crime, rather, unregistered presence plus willfulness muist be shown." Without referring to this case itself, the the Immigrants' Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2010 explained

The act of being present in the United states in violation of the immigration laws is not, standing alone, a crime. While federal immigration law does criminalize some actions that may be related to undocumented presence in the United States, undocumented presence alone is not a violation of federal criminal law. Thus, many believe that the term "illegal alien," which may suggest a criminal violation, is inaccurate or misleading.... 

Undocumented presence in the United States is only criminally punishable if it occurs after an individual was previously formally removed from the United States and then returned without permission. (8 U.S. Code Section 1326) (any individual previously "deported or removed" who "enters, attempts to enter, or is at any time found in" the United States without authroization may be punished by imprisonment up to two years). Mere undocumented presence in the United States alon, however, in the absence of a previous removal order and unathorized reentry, is not a crime under federal law.

Deputy Attorney General Blanch, therefore, probably was wrong when he said of the "millions and millions and millions of undocumented illegal aliens (who have flooded our country" that "the fact that they're here illegally is a crime."

To give Blanch his due- those this was not what he stated- individuals who have "flooded our country illegally" are not guilty of a mere civil offense. In that same 2010 report, the ACLU noted

Entering the United States without being inspected and admitted, i.e., illegal entry, is a misdemeanor or can be a felony, depending on the circumstanstances. (8 U.S. Code, Section 1325.) But many undocumented immigrants do not enter the United States illegally. They enter legally but overstay, work without authorization, drop out of school or violate the conditions of their visas in some other way. Current estimates are that approximately 45% f undoumented immigrants did not enter illegally. See Pew Hispanic Center, Modes of Entr for the Unauthorized Migrant Population (May 22, 2006). 

As Doar points out, Section 1325 applies to individuals entering the USA illegally for the first time and Section 1326 pertains to persons re-entering illegally (or previously denied permission to enter), as they have since enacted in the late 1920s.  (The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996  made the law tougher/more punitive.) Although estimates vary, it appears that the number of persons who have overstayed their visa (or Master Card) constitutes a very minority of the total number here on an unauthorized basis. Unlike the foreigners who have entered or re-entered illegally, they are guilty only of  a civil offense.

Civil vs. criminal and misdemeanor vs. felony are critical distinctions. Of course, that leaves us with such problems as apprehension in schools and at courthouses, separation of children from their parents, camera phobia, excessive force, wearing of masks, warrantless home raids, and quotas (almost always bad things). Confronting tyranny is a tall order.

.

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We're Giving False Hope

In "A not 'toned down' Trump regime prepares for ethnic cleansing in Ohio," Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch makes several good points about President Trump's immigration spolicy and practices.

Among them is that the Administration is not in the least pulling back from its harsh, objectively inhumane, actions.  The evidence includes the upcoming raids on Springfield, Ohio. Bunch notes

On Tuesday, some 350,000 Haitian refugees are slated — under a Trump regime order — to lose the temporary protected status (TPS) that was granted to them by the Biden administration and has allowed them to stay legally in the United States after fleeing an epidemic of gang violence and murder in their Caribbean homeland.

Advocates for the large Haitian diaspora are fighting Trump’s revocation in court, so there is a chance the move can be forestalled. However, top officials including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, have said the Department of Homeland Security has plans in place to immediately swarm the industrial epicenter of Haitian migration — Springfield, Ohio — with a massive force of federal agents to begin deportation raids.

You probably remember Springfield from its prominence in the 2024 presidential campaign. Over the last decade, a surge of Haitian migrants into a once nearly comatose factory town — some 12,000 to 15,000 people, or now a quarter of the small city’s population — revitalized Springfield yet triggered a moral panic among some white neighbors who shared utterly unfounded rumors of animal abuse.

As of 3/31/25, approximately 1,297, 635 individuals from 17 nations were residing in the USA- fewer now, no doubt- due to Temporary Protected Status, which is

a government beneift granted by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to eligible foreign-born individuals who are unable to return home safely due to conditions or circumstances preventing their country from adequately handling the return.....

The DHS Secretary can extend TPS after a review of country conditions. A decision concerning an extension should typically be made at least 60 days before the TPS designation is set to expire. The Secretary can extend the TPS designation for a six, 12 or 18-month period or decide to cancel the designation.

TPS now applies to individuals from 12 nations. The Administration is now in the process of taking away the designation from Venezuela and Nicaragua. Bunch denounces ICE

zeroing in on so many Venezuelans, who came to America to escape the rule of a man the Trump regime has now arrested as a criminal dictator of a nation that the U.S. State Department has deemed violent and unsafe? Why deport the thousands of Latinos who worked tirelessly to rebuild New Orleans after it was decimated by Hurricane Katrina?

Not only is Trump’s mass deportation not nabbing many violent criminals, but his unholy war is undoing the very foundation of the story that America tells itself to live — that our willingness to accept the huddled masses fleeing political violence or persecution made us an exceptional nation. It was always an uneven narrative, but the regime’s masked men are now erasing it in service of unapologetic white supremacy.

But we have been willing to accept those huddled masses with TPS, which lacks a "lawful path to permanent residence (a green card) or citizenship."  The beneficiaries could mow our lawns, construct or clean buildings, pick crops, wash dishes or serve food at our restaurants. Low wages, few benefits, and arbitrary termination from employment are common.

What these individuals could not, and cannot, obtain is citizenship.In 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services explained

Citizenship is the common thread that connects all Americans. We are a nation bound not by race or religion, but by the shared values of freedom, liberty, and equality.

Throughout our history, the United States has welcomed newcomers from all over the world. Immigrants have helped shape and define the country we know today. Their contributions help preserve our legacy as a land of freedom and opportunity. More than 200 years after our founding, naturalized citizens are still an important part of our democracy. By becoming a U.S. citizen, you too will have a voice in how our nation is governed.

The decision to apply is a significant one. Citizenship offers many benefits and equally important responsibilities. By applying, you are demonstrating your commitment to this country and our form of government.

Elizabeth Bruenig of The Atlantic (subscription required) recently reminded us that the USA was founded on "the idea that a nationcould be baound not by race, ethnicity, or language but by fidelity to a set of principles- liberty, equality,self-governance, and inalienable rights."

It's an idea expressed, in one way or another at one time or another, by such notables as Ronald Reagan, Joe Biden, and Lindsey Graham. Yet, it's something we need to be reminded of as the promiscuous implementation of Temporary Protection Status belies the ideal.

It belies the ideal because as we invite people(s) from other countries in, they are not invited to be Americans, not even second-class citizens. They are given a work permit and escape from an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster,or extraoridnary and temporary conditions.

They are not asked to give a commitment to this country or to  those principles which Bruenig and others cite as foundational principles of America. And in return, they can have their Temporary Protected Status yanked from them whenever the federal government chooses, as the Trump Administration is feverishly attempting.

In the 1984 "America" written by Sammy Johns, Waylon Jennings sang "and my brothers are all black and white, yellow too, and the red man is right; to expect a little from you, promise and then follow through, America."

Promise and then follow through. That's exactly what we don't do with TPS, and no Administration can promise to do because it all can be done.

In some instances, temporary protection status is probably appropriate. However, there should be less of it and more of a program of true citizenship. Individuals would be given an opportunity to work toward citizenship, and over a shorter period of time than has been proposed in the past. Applicants would be assisted in this goal which, if achieved, would beneift this country. If they decided not to participate significantly, their continued presence would not be welcomed.  If they chose to be Americans, to be a part of our continuing experiment, they would be a valuable addition.

Obviously and unfortunately, this is all moot now. This is Donald Trump's government and autocratic strategy and acquiesence to his schemes is necessary to maintain, as Bunch recognizes, "the very foundation of the story that America tells itself to live."

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