It's Immigration, Too

James Carville, a campaign advisor to Bill Clinton in the early 1990s, was the first to say it: “It’s the economy, stupid.” This truism about national elections holds water: While pundits talk about so many other issues at stake, the economy is usually the one that moves people the most when they cast a vote for president. There’s no reason to think 2024 will be any different.

That said, there are several other important issues in that race this year, and they filter down to the 1st District race for the U.S. House of Representatives, where they take on even more importance. A strong case can be made that there is no more impactful issue in this election than immigration.

Last week, The Express News Group, partnering with WLIW-FM, kicked off a podcast called “1st District Matters” by focusing on immigration. Incumbent Nick LaLota and challenger John Avlon took time discussing the issue — but the truth is, there’s a lot more that voters should demand to hear from both candidates on the subject. The outcome of both this contest and the presidential race will have an out-sized impact on the 1st District when it comes to the way the U.S. government treats immigrants, who make up such a significant part of the region’s cultural and economic vibrancy.

The stakes are high — higher, it seems, than LaLota, the sitting U.S. representative, is willing to acknowledge. And that’s a serious concern in itself.

In the “1st District Matters” interview, the Republican incumbent downplayed Donald Trump’s rhetoric. Asked about Trump’s plans to deport the estimated 10 million to 11 million undocumented men, women and children who are inside the United States, he shrugged it off: “I haven’t seen him say that. If you wouldn’t mind sending me where he said that. That’s not a concept that’s being seriously contemplated.”

Trump has studiously avoided specifics, but his message is clear. Time magazine in April wrote an article based on two extensive interviews and said the “capstone” of his planned policy, according to his advisers, “would be a massive deportation operation that would target millions of people. Trump made similar pledges in his first term, but says he plans to be more aggressive in a second. ‘People need to be deported,’ says Tom Homan, a top Trump adviser and former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ‘No one should be off the table,’ use the military to round up, put in camps, and deport more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.”

Trump actually used an estimate of 15 million and 20 million people who he said are undocumented in the United States, which is well above most other official estimates.

At a rally in September 2023 in Iowa, Trump said, “Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” His reference is to the military-style campaign in 1954 undertaken by the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, with the unfortunate name of “Operation Wetback,” which carries a fragrant whiff of the ugliness that drove it.

“Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration adviser, has publicly declared that they would pursue such an enormous effort partly by creating a private red-state army under the president’s command,” the Atlantic reported, with plans to use National Guard troops. The Atlantic also noted Miller’s appearance last November on a podcast hosted by the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, in which he “suggested that another Trump administration would seek to remove as many as 10 million ‘foreign-national invaders’ who he claims have entered the country under Biden” by going “around the country arresting illegal immigrants in large-scale raids.” That would require “large-scale staging grounds near the border, most likely in Texas” — internment camps.

Trump, meanwhile, at a March rally in Dayton, Ohio, echoed some of the dehumanizing language used 70 years ago to justify a government action that is now considered a national black eye.

“I don’t know if you call them people,” Trump said of undocumented immigrants. “In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion, but I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”

This language resonates: CBS News recently found in a poll that 60 percent of voters — including 90 percent of Republicans — would favor “a new government agency that would deport all undocumented immigrants.” It is also the kind of language that lays the groundwork for sweeping, angry policy that targets an “other” among us, without mercy.

LaLota, in describing his own stance, focused on undocumented immigrants who commit crimes — but there are existing policies that lead to deportation in those cases. For him to suggest that more draconian policies are not being “seriously contemplated” seems to ignore the constant stream of vitriol coming from the man at the top of his ticket. We need to hear more. (To be fair, John Avlon’s support of “comprehensive immigration reform” also requires some details: It’s a catch-all phrase that evaporates at the touch.)

Voters should demand more specific answers from both candidates about this issue, because the outcome of the November 5 election could bring a very dark future for many men, women and children of the 1st District — and the impact will be felt economically, and could create a human rights catastrophe felt right here in our neighborhoods.

The cost of eggs and gasoline is absolutely important. But immigration is an issue that also deserves to be top of mind to voters in the 1st District.