During the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR) annual “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” radio row last Thursday, FAIR president Dan Stein told radio host Matt Tompkins that Donald Trump’s call to build a southern border wall is nothing more than campaign language and “a surrogate” for Trump’s real plans, explaining that Trump will not actually build a wall because there already is a wall in some areas and in other areas there is little need for one.
“The wall is a surrogate for getting the border under control,” Stein said. “There have been physical structures in place down there since the 1980s. You need physical structures at certain high entry points to channel traffic. Ranchers who are out there in the middle of nowhere, they don’t see why you would need a border wall.”
Stein continued, “Really, these issues are, the simple issues on the campaign, are surrogates.”
“The wall is a surrogate for border control operations,” Stein said. “What [Trump’s] saying is he’s gonna get the job done. People who believe he’s actually gonna put a brick on every centimeter of 2,000 miles are in a sense mistaking his intention. The language he’s using is what you use in a political campaign, and if you take Hillary Clinton at her word, then she wants to embrace a limitless immigration platform.”
When asked about Trump’s promises of mass deportations, Stein responded that under a Trump presidency, “some people will get to stay, I’m sure.”
“In the context of the real world we’re dealing with now, we either have a political leader who articulates firm messages that say respect for law is the cornerstone of citizenship, or we have politicians who try to game immigration for partisan advantage,” Stein said.
