The first was a plan by the Obama administration to conduct raids againsthundreds of immigrants who are among the recent wave of refugees from Central American violence. The second was the scandalous treatment of some of those refugees, including minors who were released into the custody of sex traffickers.
.. The Latino students I met resist oppression in a low-key, goal-oriented way. By working full time while getting a degree. By studying to become breadwinners who give back to their communities. And by voting for a candidate likely to support immigration reform.
New Fences on the Old Continent: Refugee Crisis Pushes Europe to the Brink
Merkel has begun warning of the EU’s disintegration “into small states” that will be unable to compete in a globalized world, as well as of the possibility that border controls might soon be reintroduced all across Europe.
Were Europe in agreement, it would be unproblematic to accommodate 2-3 million refugees, given the Continent’s population of a half billion people. From such a perspective, the current spat actually seems somewhat ridiculous. But in the run up to next week’s EU summit, Europe is gripped by strife. Europe’s greatest achievement, the opening of its borders through the Schengen agreement, is at stake, and the increasingly toxic atmosphere between countries has reached alarming dimensions.
.. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in turn warned Greece that if the country didn’t move to secure its borders that, “there will be one single hotspot and it will be called Greece.” Perhaps, he added, it may be necessary to sacrifice Greece for the sake of Europe’s well-being.
.. Europe’s weakness, though, is also the product of a Germany that is having trouble fitting into its leadership role on the Continent. For decades, German politicians have sought to eschew expressing Germany’s own interests, instead emphasizing what is best for Europe and trying to be the best Atlanticists possible, exercising restraint when it came to their role in the EU.
.. This changed during the euro crisis. Merkel took advantage of the country’s economic strength in order to pursue German interests.
.. Although Merkel, like many others, initially pushed for the distribution of the refugees across the EU, the German chancellor is now emphasizing border protection as the highest priority.
.. This is why the Greek prime minister has involved the last institution in his country that is still able to act reliably and quickly: the military. Greek soldiers are now to erect tent camps and repurpose barracks as provisional living spaces in Athens, Thessaloniki and elsewhere.
.. He says there was never a time when Greek officials simply “waved refugees through,” as they have been accused of doing. “What are we supposed to do if they don’t want to be here?” he asks.
.. The correct answer only comes following a bit of friendly assistance from the interpreter: “Because we want to ask for asylum in Germany.” “Five for Germany,” the policeman calls out, and waves the Syrians through.
Wrong answers at this point in the journey would be: “I want to go to Germany to work as a teacher,” or “because my brother lives there.” Those who slip up, even just once, are sent back to Slovenia, and from there, if they don’t apply for asylum, onwards to Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Greece.
.. In most formerly communist EU member states, the electorates are largely xenophobic and the belief is widespread that refugees would bring epidemics, terrorism and Sharia law into their countries. The influx, many in Eastern Europe believe, is but the advance guard of an expansive Islam seeking to take over the Christian West.
.. The construction of Fortress Europe, which was never supposed to be built, is quite far along in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans. There are fences between Turkey and Bulgaria, between Hungary and Serbia and between Greece and Macedonia. Slovenia has once again begun using Yugoslavia-era customs barracks on the Austrian border.
.. The idea of establishing mandatory refugee quotas for EU member states is dead. Instead, Ankara is to be offered that a “Coalition of the Willing” will accept refugees directly from Turkey, but only after the border is secured — if the country agrees to take back economic migrants.
.. According to a European Commission report, the reintroduction of internal border controls within the Schengen area would reduce EU economic output over a 10-year period by between €500 billion and €1.4 trillion. Just the direct costs for border controls will cost between €5 billion and €18 billion annually.
.. In the concert of large geopolitical powers, individual European countries do not have a loud voice, not even Germany. The United States and China are only interested in the EU as a whole. Size is decisive. If Europe is unable to present itself as a unity, it will be marginalized.
.. The trip took 25 days and was so stressful that Doaa stopped lactating. Her sister Walaa heads off in search of powdered milk.
.. Doaa says that she is so agitated that she can’t sleep anymore, adding that, from what she has seen so far, she isn’t particularly fond of Greece. She says it’s disgusting here and that she has tried to avoid visiting the restrooms. Instead of eating, she smokes.
Donald Trump: The Post-Truth Candidate
Trump, despite his denunciations of employers preferring foreign to American workers, turned down 94 percent of American applicants for seasonal jobs at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., and used, instead, workers brought in on H-2B visas. Not to mention that he has employed illegal immigrants on at least two occasions, the best-known in the early 1980s, when he used undocumented Polish workers to avoid paying pension and welfare benefits to unionized Americans. Trump, who was previously against increases in the importation of low-skilled and high-skilled workers, now suddenly supports those increases.
.. In short, Trump believes in nothing except the force of his own personality. Often, it’s not quite correct to say he’s lying, because he never believed anything in the first place. Donald Trump is post-truth.
Donald Trump Is Transforming the G.O.P. Into a Populist, Nativist Party
For the past forty years, the G.O.P. has been an uneasy alliance of social conservatives, free-market conservatives, and corporate interest groups, with the latter largely dictating economic policy. Trump has been drawing on a base of alienated white working-class and middle-class voters, seeking to remake the G.O.P. into a more populist, nativist, avowedly protectionist, and semi-isolationist party that is skeptical of immigration, free trade, and military interventionism.
If he were to succeed in this quest, he would arguably be the most consequential Republican since Ronald Reagan, in part by challenging some aspects of Reagan’s legacy.
.. Given the fact that Christie was bashing Trump on the stump just a few weeks ago, his endorsement was the most dramatic (and heavily covered) of the two. It indicated that Trump, ultimately, may end up getting the backing of many coastal Republicans and business interests, who aren’t particularly ideological.
.. But in terms of votes in the Republican primaries, and the future direction of the party, it is the Sessions endorsement that probably matters most. A lifelong Republican whom Reagan nominated to a federal judgeship in 1986, his bona fides as a conservative and party loyalist are unquestioned.
.. He identified immigration and trade as the key issues that had brought him to Trump’s side. “Nobody is perfect,” Sessions went on. “We can’t have everything, can we, Mr. Trump? But I can tell you one thing . . . at this time in American history, we need to make America great again.” With that, Sessions took out one of those red Trump baseball caps—which are stitched together by a Los Angeles firm that employs lots of Mexican immigrants—and put it on, to huge cheers.