Prof: Trump's immigration policy goal is to inflate ‘body count’
A Brooklyn College professor says President Trump’s immigration policy is about “inflating ‘body count’ stats,” and that “any brown person will do.”
Associate Professor and ‘Herb Kurz’ Chair of Constitutional Rights and Political Science Anna O. Law regularly tweets about immigration-related issues, often attributing racist motives to those who favor legal restrictions on immigration.
[RELATED: Prof: Trump’s immigration policies fueled by ‘racist nativism’]
On July 12, Law responded to her own tweet noting that voting rights were tied to land ownership during the colonial period, explaining that the “Reason why I’m pointing this out is that since Trump has now formed a de-naturalization force, one’s citizenship via naturalization is tenuous and apparently contingent on whether the Admin is nativist. Why then tie precious barrels of rights to it?”
The very next day, Law remarked on President Trump’s comment that immigration is “not good for our country” while he was in London to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
“These comments, made to an international audience on foreign soil, are beyond appaling [sic],” she wrote, adding that, “I don’t think this counts as a dog whistle given the dynamics, it’s foghorning his racism.”
[RELATED: Profs demand that Microsoft stop doing business with ICE]
Three days later, Law tweeted the “Dreams of a political scientist,” imagining herself going “before Congress” to tell them “how challenging it has been to teach during the Trump era and that if they weren’t going to fulfill their oversight role over the Exec, we should just rewrite all the textbooks.”
Returning to the theme, she tweeted on July 16 that “It was difficult to teach Intro to American Government in the middle of the Trump era,” but took solace in the belief that “me being in the classroom teaching critical thinking, writing, evaluation of evidence, history, is one of the most patriotic & politics things I can do right now.”
Earlier that day, Law had remarked on a post from Matthew Yglesias about an ICE raid in Washington, D.C., in which Yglesias writes that “When federal agents couldn’t find the two people they were looking for they took 9 others.”
“Trump’s immigration policy is about inflating ‘body count’ stats, not about removing dangerous criminals,” Law commented in response. “If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, without proof of citizenship on your person...any brown person will do.”
[RELATED: Profs demand Johns Hopkins end ICE partnership ‘immediately’]
Most recently, Law posted a lengthy series of tweets Thursday morning in response to a Washington Post op-ed arguing that “citizenship shouldn’t be a birthright.”
“If ending birthright citizenship will not actually slow or stop undocumented immigration, but will instead augment the number by making a bunch of babies illegal, why is the idea out there?” she asked at the end of her rebuttal. “See it for what it is, a white supremacist move.”
Law is the author of the 2010 book The Immigration Battle in American Courts, and is currently working on a second book about immigration, federalism, and slavery.
Campus Reform reached out to Brooklyn College and Professor Law, but has not received a response from either. This story will be updated if and when a comment is received.
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