Deconstructing liberal justifications for immigrant deportation

I came across this image and the text that accompanies it the other day on social media. It appears to have been created by Karly Kingsley, a former chef and now writer and supposed influencer, who posted this message on June 10th on their Instagram page. I saw lots of people sharing this image on social media, which lead me to writing this post. 

The image show four cops, in riot gear, who have just abused and are now standing over a civilian. The image is presumably from Los Angeles, where civilians, mostly from the Latine community, have been fighting back against ICE attacks on family members and neighbors.

The text reads:

The Obama administration deported over 3.16 million people. Biden’s passed 4.44 million. Not once did either need troops in the streets to do it. That’s all you need to know about what’s happening.

Wow! There is a lot to unpack with this statement. 

First, the liberal social media influencer is acknowledging that the Obama and Biden Administrations collectively deported 7.6 million people during their two administrations, but somehow that is ok, because they never used the National Guard to respond to a public uprising. Let me be clear, the deportation of undocumented immigrants is harm, it is brutal, dehumanizing, it destroys families, and it causes deep trauma that will never go away. 

Second, for Karly Kingsley, none of harm and trauma of deportation really matters, since the Obama, nor the Biden Administrations, never called in the National Guard to deal with those resisting ICE violence. In no way does the use of the National Guard by the Trump Administration make the harm done to immigrants by the Obama and Biden Administrations any less heinous. 

Third, telling people that “this is all you need to know about what is happening” not only minimizing the brutal harm done to immigrant communities by the Obama and Biden Administrations, it also re-enforces the pathetic and sophomoric notion that the President’s we voted for aren’t as bad as the President you voted for. What is wrong with people? Are we in seventh grade? Do people actually want to hang their hats on the idea that no matter how much harm the President’s we voted for committed, it doesn’t compare to the harm done by Trump?” 

Fourth, just to be clear, liberal and Democratic Presidents and governments have used the National Guard on civilians just as frequently as Republican Presidents and politicians have in this country’s history. Hell, during the 1960s, the Johnson Administration used the National Guard to suppress urban uprisings all across the US, when Black people took to the streets in response to police violence and systemic racism that their communities had been subject to for decades under Jim Crow policies. (See Elizabeth Hinton’s book, America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s.) Even more recently, Michigan Governor Whitmer and then Mayor of Grand Rapids, Rosalynn Bliss, both identified as progressive liberals,  called in the Michigan National Guard to suppress the George Floyd uprising in May of 2020.

Lastly, this whole “Democrats are not as bad as Republicans” mantra is shallow and weak. If we want to have a backbone and be honest about what is happening, then we need to own what any administration or politician is doing instead of minimizing the harm being done and say, “well, they aren’t as bad as so and so would be.” 

Resorting to the message of “we aren’t as bad as the Republicans” is not only intellectually inferior, it exposes the fact that the Democrats are fundamentally similar on many major issues, they are just not as extreme. The “we aren’t as bad as the Republicans” also demonstrates that the Democrats and Liberalism doesn’t have a vision or practice radical imagination. 

As long as Liberalism continues to promote and perpetuate the idea of lesser evilism and refuse to acknowledge the brutal harm it condones, it will continue to lose, have unenthusiastic support or be the reason for people not wanting to engage in the political process.