Thread by @Noahpinion

People think all those Central Americans being apprehended at the border are illegal immigrants.

They're not. They're turning themselves in to the Border Patrol and requesting asylum.

forbes.com/sites/stuartan…

The reason Trump & co. keep painting these asylum seekers as "illegals" - and the reason they've gotten away with it - is because over the past few decades, they've basically turned "illegal immigrant" into a slur for poor Hispanic immigrants.

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1053373544409661440

The system we (the U.S.) invented for keeping out poor Mexican laborers thus threatens to mutate into a racial caste system, where poor Hispanic immigrants - and even some Hispanic Americans - are stereotyped as being "illegals".

Republicans tend to think that when Democrats fight against the term "illegal immigrant", they're fighting for open borders or against the rule of law.

But Democrats are really just fighting against a racial/class stigmatization of poor Hispanic Americans.

Republicans belie their concern for "rule of law" or "border security" when they freak out over poor Central Americans turning themselves into the Border Patrol and requesting asylum.

Asylum requests are not a violation of the rule of law or an attempt to erase borders.

When Republicans call a wave of asylum seekers an "invasion", it seems obvious - to Democrats, but also to reasonable neutral observers - that what they're really concerned about is the race and class of the people requesting asylum.

If Republicans really put the rule of law first and foremost, they'd just send an army of asylum judges down to the border to adjudicate the flood of cases.

Instead Trump is doing the opposite.
vox.com/2019/4/3/18293…

Thus, by treating a wave of asylum seekers as an invasion force, Trump and the Republicans are moving America AWAY from a country based on the race-neutral rule of law.

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