The mess we are watching unfold in California right now should not come as even the slightest surprise to anybody. The issue of mass illegal immigration into America has been a problem for several generations now. And, as with so many issues, both sides have selective memory regarding their current stances on the issue. 

Anyone who knows me knows I am not a Donald Trump MAGA guy in the slightest. But, we all knew that whoever the president was to finally put a real foot down on illegal immigration would be demonized regardless of which side of our politics that foot came from. It’s interesting to hear all of the sharp rhetoric and flaming criticism coming from the left regarding Trump’s attempt to get the issue under something resembling control. 

Perhaps they have forgotten these statements from their leaders:

Barack Obama: “If you’re a criminal, you will be deported. If you plan to enter the US illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up. The actions I’m taking are not only lawful, they are the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every single Democratic president for the past half-century. We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, and unchecked.”

By the way – as president, Obama deported 5.3 million illegals.

Bill Clinton: “The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.  We will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes…and to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace.”

As president, Clinton deported 12.3 million illegals.

Hillary Clinton: “If they’ve committed a crime, deport them – no questions asked, they’re gone.”

Chuck Schumer: “When we use phrases like ‘undocumented workers’, we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration.” 

Regarding criticizing the use of National Guard troops, has it been forgotten (or never learned) that then-President Eisenhower used them to stabilize the unrest surrounding the integration of schools? Or that they were deployed to Alabama when George Wallace stood in the doorways of Alabama’s schools? Or how federal troops were used to help stabilize the fragile peace across the still simmering nation after The Civil War?

In other words, there is a definite historical precedent – regardless of what is being peddled. 

With all that said, in total fairness to my friends on the left, perhaps the MAGA crowd has forgotten (or never learned) what was said between then-presidential candidates George Bush and Ronald Reagan (one of the most outspoken champions of immigration in our history) in their presidential debate in 1980:

Bush: “I would like to see something done about the illegal alien problem that would be so sensitive and so understanding about labor needs and human needs that that problem wouldn’t come up; but today if those people are here, I would reluctantly say I think they will get whatever it is that society is giving to their neighbors. But the problem has to be solved, because…we are creating a whole society of really honorable, decent family-loving people that are in violation of the law. I don’t want to see a whole family – think of six and eight-year-old kids – being made…to feel that their family is stuck living outside the law. Let’s address ourselves to the fundamentals. These are good people, strong people.”

Reagan: “I think the time has come for the United States and our neighbors to the South, should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we have ever had.  And I think that we haven’t been sensitive enough to our size and our power.  They (historically) have a problem with…unemployment there. Now, this cannot continue without the possibility…of trouble below the border, and we could have a very hostile and strange neighbor on our border.  Rather than making them – we are talking about putting up a fence – why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems, make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then, while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here.  And when they want to go back, they can go back. And they can cross, and open the border both ways by understanding their problems. We are the only safety valve right now…that probably keeps the lid from blowing off down there.”

Now, have you heard a single voice from the right saying anything resembling that? Or, a single voice from the left even remotely resembling the comments of Obama and the others? Of course not, because it doesn’t fit the polarizing rhetoric of today – or either side’s ability to profit from it.

The adage of “there’s three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth…” seems to fit this and far too many other important political issues of today all too well. Maybe one of these days the rest of us will figure out as much.