On extremely rare occasions when Washington, D.C., yields to the 50 states, panic inevitably ensues among the elite media and others who benefit from centralized power. Such is the case with refugee resettlement policy, now being reformed under the Trump administration.
Of course, racism charges are part and parcel of the attacks on any person or policy that supports states’ rights over D.C. diktats. See for evidence the scary Washington Post article that calls this policy reform a “refugee ban” that “opens the door to more demagoguery by Trump.” Pot, meet kettle.
President Donald Trump has proposed lowering the annual cap on refugees to 18,000, far below the all-time high of 110,000 in 2016 under President Barack Obama. Whatever metrics are used to arrive at either figure are obviously not free-market-oriented, as the federal government subsidizes so much of what constitutes refugee resettlement.
However, decentralization can improve the quality of the signals showing demand for refugee supply. That is precisely what Trump is offering, allowing states to effectively nullify refugee resettlements imposed on them. It should be instructive to know next year whether there was a state-based clamoring for up to 18,000 refugees nationwide.
The details of the policy change are yet unknown, as it goes through a 90-day period of rewriting. A pure private property solution would be appreciated if any bureaucrat is reading this.
Politico, citing proposals circulating among lawmakers, reports that the 18,000 figure is actually the total for four separate caps, with 5,000 for those fearing religious persecution, 4,000 for Iraqis who helped U.S. forces, 1,500 for Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Hondurans, and finally, 7,500 for a general pool.
Funnily, the elite media spin on the story contains the very root of the problem that led to Trump getting elected. It parrots the platitude that “freedom” means America welcoming more refugees than all other countries combined, for decades on end, thanks to “bipartisanship.”
“Make America Great Again” was about breaking the bipartisanship that invaded the world and invited the world. Nowhere in the article does the Post reflect on 2016, which is all the more convincing for this writer that 2020 will offer similar results.
Besides indignant outrage, not much is offered by the elite media as an option available to critics. One humble suggestion would be to go abroad and do real charity work, not subsidized by the government. Or perhaps some of the tens of thousands of people who would feel tempted to leave their homelands might instead stay and help themselves find liberty.
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