Claytoonz: Title 42 boo hoo

Two things: I don’t like the term “illegal” to describe refugees or the word “invasion” for people seeking a better life in the United States. I use them here to use the type of language you would hear on hate TV. And that’s exactly what you will find on Fox News, One America News, Newsmax, and all the various right-wing websites. Hate. Hate and fear sell. And that’s exactly what Republicans have been selling by warning that ending Title 42 will bring about the end of days for the United States.

Republicans have been warning that the end of Title 42 would bring calamity and overwhelm our nation with an invasion of our southern border and the “Great Replacement” would begin. The order was lifted last Thursday and guess what. Border crossings actually went down.

Title 42 was created in 1944 to limit entries into this nation during a public health crisis. It’s vaguely written and the Trump administration used it as an excuse to deny LEGAL entry into this nation by immigrants from south of the United States. The Trump policy was created by Stephen Baby Goebbels Miller, who has zero expertise in public health but tons of experience with white nationalism. Now when you hear goons cry that it will increase illegal entries into this nation, they’re wrong. The rule had nothing to do with illegal entry and is only about people attempting to enter our nation legally. If someone wants to enter our nation illegally, Title 42 wasn’t going to stop them.

The same people who scream at you for continuing to wear a face mask and even deny we were in a pandemic are the same fuckos howling about the end of Title 42. The code is not to be implemented because you hate brown people but because there’s a public health crisis. If you want to use Title 42 while claiming the pandemic was a hoax, then you’re abusing it. I addressed this a few months ago.

If you support ending all covid regulations then you need to support the removal of Title 42. You can’t have it both ways, although you have tried. MAGAts want every covid restriction lifted except the one that prevented brown people from entering our nation.

Several of my right-wing colleagues predicted the border would be overrun by immigrant seeking legal entry into our nation, but OOPS, and OOPS, and OOPS. That’s embarrassing. But don’t worry. I’m here to point it out for you. Personally, I think all three goon cartoonists should be forced to perform the Little Wrong Man dance.

The first cartoon was drawn by someone who doesn’t understand the issue. He claims we have “open borders” yet he has a fence in the cartoon (cartooning tip: Don’t destroy your own argument in your own cartoon). And while decrying the end of Title 42, there are immigrants climbing over that fence. I guess the cartoonist doesn’t understand that Title 42 is about LEGAL entry…not illegal. People pleading for asylum and entering our nation legally, which is what most of these immigrants are doing, don’t climb over fences. It’s not like Kurt Cobain climbing over a fence to escape a rehab facility he entered voluntarily (yes, he did that).

Whether we have Title 42 or not, we have an immigration problem in this nation. The problem isn’t that people want to come here. The problem is how we handle it. But everyone who comes to our border and appeals for asylum has a legal right to enter this nation and move around freely in it until they have a hearing for their asylum. They don’t deserve to be forced to sleep on sidewalks in Juarez or used as political props by Republican governors who ship them to blue states. And they don’t deserve to be scapegoated, called “illegals” or be accused of “invading” our country.

Fun fact: Immigration isn’t the largest crisis this nation is facing. The crisis isn’t that they’re entering, it’s how we’re dealing with it. We need to change the way we think about immigration and stop seeing it as a crisis that hurts us, but more of a humanitarian crisis for the people who need our help. We need to understand that when they get here, they make our country better.

A much greater crisis in this nation is hate and domestic terrorism which is enabled and supported by the same people who want to keep Title 42.