The White Elephant in the Room

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The Supreme Court majority and the Trump administration seem to be collaborating to rewrite that Emma Lazarus line to something more like: Give me your white people. Consider today’s 6-3 (of course) Supreme Court decisions that “allowed President Trump’s aggressive crackdown on immigration to move forward, permitting the administration to both expel some migrants from the country and to turn away others at the southern border.” The ruling that allows Trump to remove Temporary Legal Status “clears a path for the potential deportation of 350,000 Haitians.” NYT (Gift Article): Supreme Court Expands Trump’s Power Over Immigration. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan referred to Trump’s constant derogatory comments about Haitian immigrants: “The statements fairly shout, in their racial undertones and overtones alike, that race entered into the president’s resolve to remove Haitians from this country.” Race isn’t just a factor in who the president (and let’s be honest, the SCOTUS majority) wants out of the country, it’s also the key factor in who is getting in. Mojo: US Accepts Only White Refugees For Sixth Consecutive Month. And from the NYT (Gift Article): How Trump Turned America’s Refugee Program Into a Pathway for White People.