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Ben Carson’s Drone War On Illegal Immigrants Is A “Solution” In Search Of A Problem

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Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:10 pm

On Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson ratcheted up his border rhetoric by advocating military drone strikes on American soil to combat illegal immigration. Speaking near the U.S.-Mexico border, Carson told reporters:

You look at some of these caves and things out there one drone strike, boom, and they’re gone!

He continued by stating:

I’m suggesting we do what we need to do to secure the border, whatever that is.

Carson’s remarks came just three days after Donald Trump called for an end to birthright citizenship, triggering fellow GOP hopefuls Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker to follow suit. As PoliticusUSA writer RMuse noted on Thursday, the Republican Party’s idea of immigration reform has become shredding the Constitution, launching military drone strikes, and even reinstating slavery.

Trump has brought the discussion of illegal immigration into the center of the presidential campaign and Republicans are falling over one another to position themselves on the party’s right flank on the issue. Carson’s implication that lethal military drone strikes on U.S. soil should be part of our immigration policy, is just the latest outburst of borderline insanity from the GOP camp.

The Republican Party’s intensifying crusade against illegal immigration is not only cruel and impractical, but it is also largely a “solution in search of a problem”. Illegal immigration into the United States from Mexico has been declining for over a decade, and in the past five years more Mexicans have been leaving the United States than entering it.

With military advisers arguing that sequestration cuts have already spread the Air Force thin, it would be the height of folly to redirect air strike resources to the diminishing inflow of undocumented immigrants crossing the Southern border, while ignoring potential developing military threats overseas. Pilots who remotely fly drones are suffering burnout and fatigue from being overworked, so adding an American border front to the nation’s drone wars is likely to further burden an already stressed strike force.

While Republicans like Carson want to employ more drones to go in search of enemies, the strikes would largely be aimed at an imaginary problem, given that more Mexicans are crossing the border to leave the United States, than are choosing to enter the country.

Republican candidates ignore those facts, however, because spreading anti-immigrant propaganda is an effective way for them to court xenophobic voters, who make up a significant portion of the GOP primary electorate.

Donald Trump and several other Republican hopefuls support a policy of mass deportation. Ben Carson wants to turn the Southern border region into a war zone, where military drones are used to enforce immigration law with potentially lethal consequences. The Republican Party has lost its mind on border security. The entire party is taking their cues from the insecure paranoia of a ranting lunatic billionaire. Ben Carson is just the latest GOP candidate to cross the Rubicon into borderline insanity. His proposal is a misguided policy, a bogus solution in search of a problem.

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Keith Brekhus

Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master's Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick's successful re-election bid in Arizona's 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.