{"id":519366,"date":"2018-02-09T14:52:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T21:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=519366"},"modified":"2018-02-09T14:52:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T21:52:21","slug":"cartoon-abq-journal-published-reinforces-trumps-false-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/02\/cartoon-abq-journal-published-reinforces-trumps-false-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon ABQ Journal published reinforces Trump’s false narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> Racism already knocked on the door long ago during the current president\u2019s campaign trail. The words of the president of the United States of America matter. The Office of the President impacts and shapes public discourse and sentiment. So do the words and actions of Congress. What Trump says matters, and most importantly, must be countered with the truth.<\/p>\n

\"Damian

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Damian Lara<\/p><\/div>\n

During his campaign, he said, \u201cbuild a wall.\u201d When speaking of Mexican immigrants, he claimed, \u201cthey’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.\u201d More recently, as the president of the United States, he referred
\nto El Salvador, Haiti, and African countries as \u201cshithole countries\u201d while explaining his opposition to accepting immigrants who were born there.<\/p>\n

When white supremacist rallies increased in cities across the country, and white power nationalists clashed with racial justice advocates in Charlottesville, Trump defended the white nationalist protesters, saying there were \u201csome very fine people on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

At his State of the Union address, a tragic incident was exploited to paint all immigrants with a broad brush as violent criminals. Many of us might not have noticed, or dismissed it as yet another lie used by Trump to further his agenda. And many of us sympathized and prayed for the parents of the victims. I know my heart went out to those families.<\/p>\n

The narrative Trump used in his State of the Union address was reinforced by the Albuquerque Journal\u2019s decision<\/a> to publish an editorial cartoon that depicted Dreamers as criminals<\/a>. This is the racist narrative Trump has been espousing since his campaign began, in his words about immigrants and in his policy proposals.<\/p>\n

There is no clean DACA bill or DREAM Act in the Senate deal. Instead, we have a cartoon depicting MS-13 gang members as Dreamers. And for those of you who missed it, it also portrayed them as \u201cfuture Democrats.\u201d Are Republicans worried about more registered Democrats, more than they care about the futures of Dreamers?<\/p>\n

The reality is that to qualify for DACA, among many other requirements, Dreamers must:<\/p>\n