Thread by @HMAesq

I am dismayed once again to see fellow Democrats using the language of the anti-immigrant movement.

Border security is a myth. It's a political term: it means border militarization, nothing more. It's also become a symbol of those who view future Americans as "invading hordes."

Using watered-down terms like "smart wall" only masks the ugliness of the concept with technology. Lipstick on a pig.

We took the House of Representatives in 2018. There is no need to capitulate to a racist ideology.

A border works and creates prosperity when ideas, goods, services, and yes: people can move across it. In both directions. In what universe does exchange occur across an impermeable barrier?

Don't drink the Kool-Aid, Dems.

This isn't about economics, nor is it about security. It's a purge. An ugly, racist, ethnic purge.

That our politics have now driven us to the whims of an autocrat willing to decimate all our institutions makes today's "National Emergency" announcement much more serious.

It's not just a wall: it's a power grab. More dangerous than any wall is a single man's ability to order one built.

Do you care about due process?
Do you care about the Constitution?
Do you care about separation of powers?

Then turn up the fight. Offense is the best defense here. We can't compromise on the backbone of democracy. But we're losing the war if we use their language, their terminology, their ideology.

Positive Framing:

Aspiring American.
Border prosperity.
Family-based merit.
Exchange immigration.
Welcoming.
Come as you are.
Humanity has intrinsic merit.
Compassion is strength.

Offensive Framing:

Merit-based means privileged.
Border security means militarization.
Killing due process at the border is the real illegal immigration.
Immigration detention is incarceration.
Family residential centers are baby jails.

Immigration restriction enables white nationalist terrorism.
People are not a line item on a balance sheet.
Cruelty is weakness. Weakness of mind, weakness of intellect, weakness of policy.

It's time to take it back. Enough is enough./