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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Monday, July 06, 2015

Trump magic turns GOP elephant into a cricket

USA Today (Op-Ed)
By Ruben Navarette

July 5, 2015

If Republicans don't grow a spine and speak out against Donald Trump's nativist sideshow, the GOP should change its mascot to the cricket.

With just two exceptions — one that did more harm than good, and one that was too cute by half — that's all we're hearing from other GOP presidential candidates regarding Trump's diatribes against Mexican migrants as the dregs of society.

Crickets.

According to Trump, those who migrate from Mexico to the United States are "people that have lots of problems" who are "bringing drugs" and "bringing crime" and are often "rapists."

Univision, NBC-Universal, Macy's and other companies have cut ties with Trump over the comments.

The real estate mogul obviously flunked history. For more than 240 years, America has been a beacon that attracted the cream of the crop. Sure, some undesirables squeeze through, as they always have. But for the most part, America gets the risk takers and dream makers. The home countries are stuck with the folks who didn't feel like making the effort.

In trying to explain his remarks, Trump has said one dumb thing after another.

The scoundrel even hid behind patriotism, saying: "I have great respect for Mexico and I love the Mexican people, but my loyalty is to the United States."

Now I'm really offended. As a Mexican-American, the first set of comments ticked off the first half of the hyphen. Now Trump has infuriated the second half.

How dare this modern-day P.T. Barnum soil the reputation of my country, which — while not perfect — has shown a remarkable capacity to redeem itself? I don't know what country Trump thinks he is defending with his offensive remarks, but it's not this one.

In his latest ploy, Trump is now trying to reboot his comments as being not about immigration from Mexico but about trade with Mexico.

What would you call this? I have a few words, and they end in "-ism." Racism. Nativism. Protectionism.

Ted Cruz, Trump's fellow GOP presidential candidate, called it "the truth." The Cuban-American senator from Texas — who could be voted the Latino most despised by other Latinos — told Fox News: "I like Donald Trump. I think he's terrific, I think he's brash, I think he speaks the truth."

Cruz needs to get his hearing checked. He said on Fox and Friends that Trump shouldn't apologize for "speaking out against... illegal immigration."

That's not what Trump was doing. For one thing, Trump never mentioned the word "illegal" in his original comments, so he must have been talking about all Mexican immigrants, even those who come legally. For another, if Trump wants to speak out against illegal immigration, he can talk about building walls, hiring border agents and increasing deportations until the cows come home. But when he makes it personal and talks about how a certain group of people are defective or dangerous, he's crossed the line into demagoguery.

Insulting immigrants fits a familiar pattern in American history where the Germans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, Jews and others were all — in their day — considered prone to criminal activity, but it has no place in the modern immigration debate.

Jeb Bush did a better job of responding to Trump's remarks. The former Florida governor, who speaks first-rate Spanish, borrowed a tactic from Cecilia Munoz, the Obama Administration's chief Latina apologist and director of the Domestic Policy Council. Munoz will often take a soft approach to immigration in Spanish, and then assume a hard line in English.​

So when he was asked about Trump this week by a Spanish-language reporter, Bush blasted the businessman as not representative of the values of the Republican Party. But when Bush was asked roughly the same question in English, he dialed it back and said: "I don't agree with him. I think he's wrong. It's pretty simple."

Bush is obviously reluctant to engage in a full-throated repudiation. Either he's afraid that Trump will unleash a sharp-tongued response or that Republican voters who agree with Trump will turn against his candidacy.

Those are likely the same concerns that have led the other GOP presidential hopefuls — Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, et al — to cowardly take vows of silence on Trump's comments.


It's a dangerous world. The next Commander-in-Chief must be able to stand up to ISIS, Iran, Russia. So it doesn't inspire confidence in the GOP field that they don't have the courage to tangle with the likes of Donald Trump.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com

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