Newt Gingrich

Opinion contributor

Many in the news media and Washington’s elite circles say President Donald Trump’s tough position on immigration is a scare tactic to generate Republican anger ahead of the midterm elections.

What they don’t understand (and didn’t understand in 2016, either) is that Trump isn’t creating this anger — he’s responding to it.

Americans are legitimately angry that after decades of congressional inaction, judicial activism and bureaucratic sabotage, we now have a “catch-and-release” system at our border. This means that many of those coming here illegally are caught and then, owing to loopholes in our laws, are released into the country and skip their final deportation hearings.

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Americans are angry that over the past two decades, immigration has increased the size of the non-high school graduate labor force by approximately 25 percent. So, at the same time automation is eliminating good paying jobs that don’t require much education, our immigration system is making it harder for Americans to get jobs.

Americans are also legitimately scared that our government can’t stop the massive flow of drugs across our southern border — particularly fentanyl-laced drugs, which have killed tens of thousands of Americans in recent years — or the Latin American gangs that traffic the drugs and terrorize American communities.

Americans are furious that the immigration system that their tax dollars support is incompetent, erodes economic opportunity, and puts their lives at risk.

And now Americans see thousands of Central Americans heading toward our border and more caravans forming behind them. The Gallup World Poll estimates that 37 million people from Latin America want to immigrate to the United States. Americans realize that if this caravan is allowed to take advantage of our broken system, then the next caravan will be even larger.

So, when normal Americans see President Trump addressing their concerns and forcing issues such as the caravan and birthright citizenship into the mainstream political dialogue, they’re not outraged; they’re glad that someone is finally listening. And if the elites in media, government and academia continue to ignore this issue and malign President Trump’s efforts, the American people will only get angrier.

Newt Gingrich is a former speaker of the House of Representatives.

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