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“The people of our country want it,' Trump declared at a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday to plead for the wall. . . . I have never had so much support as I have in the last week over my stance for border security ... or, frankly, the wall or the barrier. I have never had anything like it in terms of calls coming in, in terms of people writing in and tweeting. I’ve never had this much support,' he added.
"Trump was apparently referring to personal calls he has received. Neither the White House switchboard nor the call-in phone line to leave recorded comments is functioning because of the government shutdown. . . .
"But no poll has found that a majority of Americans support the wall or funding for the wall, or see it as a priority.
" Quinnipiac poll of 1,1447 voters reached on landlines or cell phones from Dec. 12-17 found that 54 percent of respondents opposed the wall and 43 percent supported it. A Harvard CAPS/Harris online survey of 1,407 registered voters conducted Dec. 24-26 found that 56 percent of those surveyed did not support a wall, while 44 percent did.
Just 35 percent of those surveyed supported including money for the wall in a federal spending bill, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll of 2,440 adults conducted online Dec. 21-25.
"More than two-thirds of Americans don’t think the wall should be a priority, according to a poll of 1,075 adults by NPR, PBS News Hour and Marist. That poll was conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 4 using live telephone interviews to reach both landlines and cell phones. . . . "
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Now that is what we call data. But the president doesn't need data to reach his strongly held opinions -- he just consults his gut feelings.
There's another piece of indirect data: the 2018 midterm elections in which Democrats won control over the House by the largest margin since the post-Watergate era. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Trump and his Wall approach to immigration reform.
And then there are the lies he has told in the past few days. His claim that some 4,000 terrorists have come across the border illegally -- his main current selling point for the Wall -- and those are the ones that have been caught. That's a gross distortion. The number 4,000 is the total number of terrorists or terror suspects that have been known to enter the U.S. -- throughout the country, not just the Southwestern border -- and most of them have flown in on airplanes. His claim that we have a national security crisis at the Southern border, when in fact there has been an overall reduction of illegal immigrants entering in recent years. The much ballyhooed "caravan" fizzled before it got to the border. And we could go on. But the short response is: we need border security, and it can be improved; but the non-partisan experts say that a physical wall is not what we need. We need more tech surveillance, drones, more agents and immigration judges to process incoming asylum seekers; we need more facilities. But a physical barrier is a Trump campaign promise that his base is now demanding. It is not a necessary part of good border security.
There's another piece of indirect data: the 2018 midterm elections in which Democrats won control over the House by the largest margin since the post-Watergate era. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Trump and his Wall approach to immigration reform.
And then there are the lies he has told in the past few days. His claim that some 4,000 terrorists have come across the border illegally -- his main current selling point for the Wall -- and those are the ones that have been caught. That's a gross distortion. The number 4,000 is the total number of terrorists or terror suspects that have been known to enter the U.S. -- throughout the country, not just the Southwestern border -- and most of them have flown in on airplanes. His claim that we have a national security crisis at the Southern border, when in fact there has been an overall reduction of illegal immigrants entering in recent years. The much ballyhooed "caravan" fizzled before it got to the border. And we could go on. But the short response is: we need border security, and it can be improved; but the non-partisan experts say that a physical wall is not what we need. We need more tech surveillance, drones, more agents and immigration judges to process incoming asylum seekers; we need more facilities. But a physical barrier is a Trump campaign promise that his base is now demanding. It is not a necessary part of good border security.
Ralph
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