When it comes to the issue of immigration, a lot of Democrats are singing a different tune than the one the Party sang in the past.
The current crop of Democratic leaders are advocating for open borders, throwing their support behind so-called sanctuary cities and states, seeking to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants, and believe it or not, actively engaging in voter registration of non-citizens. Some leaders are even pushing to completely abolish ICE, the very agency responsible for enforcing border security.
As a result of some of the policies that the Trump administration has implemented, especially the policies that attempt to enforce the rule of law, a sizable segment of the Hollywood community thinks, most likely erroneously, that they have found a safe opening through which they can enter the political arena. The safe opening to which I refer is what left-wing activists have labeled the "separation of families."
In truth, President Trump put an end to the separation practice implemented by the Obama administration; however, this fact has been ignored by members of the Hollywood left, which like so many other individuals and groups, are increasingly becoming unglued.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, George and Amal Clooney mused aloud about whether children of the future would ask if our country took babies away from their parents and "put them in detention centers . . . "
Ellen DeGeneres posted that "we can’t be a country that separates children from their parents."
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Willie Nelson opined, "What’s going on at our southern border is outrageous . . . What happened to 'Bring us your tired and weak . . . '"
Jim Carrey posted a cartoon painting of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in front of a chain link cage.
Jessica Chastain asked, "Are we really such monsters?"
Mark Hamill tweeted a political cartoon of children in cages.
As a tribute to her father, Anne Hathaway made a donation to Americans For Immigrant Justice for the purpose of honoring “all the fathers torn from their children . . . "
J.K. Rowling tweeted, "The screams reverberating around the world are coming from terrified children in cages."
The intriguing thing is that a short time ago Democrats had an entirely different perspective on immigration. In fact, many sounded as if they were partially, and in some cases even totally, in accord with the views of the Trump administration.
Back in 1993 Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said, "The day when America could be the welfare system for Mexico is gone. We simply can’t afford it."
That same year former senator from Nevada Harry Reid said, " . . . the American people think our immigration policies are a joke when we select 40,000 new immigrants a year by lottery." Reid also stated that Americans were concerned about immigration laws because the "net costs of legal and illegal immigration to all levels of government" would be a ridiculously large, a whopping "$45 billion over the next decade."
In 1994 Feinstein again chimed in on the immigration issue with a political ad showing illegal immigrants crossing the border. She also promised to deal with illegal immigration with more "agents, fencing, lighting, and other equipment."
In 1995 Bill Clinton said, "It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.” The former president also stated that the jobs illegal immigrants obtain "might otherwise be held by citizens," and that illegal immigrants "impose burdens on our taxpayers."
In 1998 then-congressman Chuck Schumer put out a call for New York’s attorney general to "bar students from nations designated as terrorist sponsors." He also insisted that students should not be “using American universities as terrorism training academies.”
President Trump recently tweeted a 2005 video in which then-senator Barack Obama said, "Those who enter the country illegally and those who employ them disrespect the rule of law and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law."
Obama added, "We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants into this country."
In 2006 then-senator Obama wrote, "When I see Mexican flags waved at pro-immigration demonstrations, I sometimes feel a flush of patriotic resentment." That same year, Obama suggested that "better fences and better security along our borders" would "help stem some of the tide of illegal immigration in this country."
Also in 2006, a majority of Senate Democrats voted in favor of legislation for the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In 2007 Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., railed against " . . . allowing corporate interests to drive wages down by importing more and more people into this country to do the work that Americans should be doing."
In 2008 the Democratic platform warned, "We cannot continue to allow people to enter the United States undetected, undocumented, and unchecked."
And again, in 2008, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., addressed the "challenge" of illegal immigrants, saying that “we certainly do not want any more coming in.”
In 2009 Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that "when we use phrases like ‘undocumented workers,’ we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration."
In 2013 former President Obama promised to put illegal immigrants "to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally." And in 2014 he said that an “influx of mostly low-skill workers" threatens "the wages of blue-collar Americans" and "put strains on an already overburdened safety net."
By 2016 Democratic Party leaders had eliminated from their platform and speeches all talk of border security as they seemingly became convinced that the size of the legal and illegal immigrant population had given them enough electoral leverage to abandon working class Americans.
Most of today’s Democrats are deliberately embracing sovereignty-destroying open border policies and intentionally favoring those who are in the country illegally over their own citizen constituents, which means they have gone further left than pretty much anyone in the Party’s past could ever have imagined.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read more reports from James Hirsen — Click Here Now.