On Wednesday, President Trump made another strong statement condemning MS-13, a violent gang known for their inhuman tactics. He called these murderous gangsters “animals”, saying: “We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.”
Trump’s comment came in the midst of a televised discussion about California’s sanctuary law, which prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from fully prosecuting illegal immigrants in California.
In this discussion, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims was explaining to President Trump how sanctuary laws make it almost impossible for ICE agents to question even the most hardened criminals. She said that ICE “is the only law enforcement agency that cannot use our databases to find the bad guys. They cannot come in and talk to people in our jail, unless they reach a certain threshold. They can’t do all kinds of things that other law enforcement agencies can do. And it’s really put us in a very bad position.”
Trump then agreed that the situation was “a disgrace”, and explained that his administration was duing to remove laws like California’s which tie the hands of law enforcement.
Sheriff Mims then said: “Thank you. There could be an MS-13 member I know about – if they don’t reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it.”
And that’s when The Donald went in on MS-13, calling them “animals.”
Which, of course, they are. Because one of the main things which divides man from the other species of higher-apes is the ability of human-kind to create frameworks of laws and social rules. These laws and social norms are what constrain our innately selfish tendencies to destruction and violence.
This capacity to make and follow abstract rules of behavior, even when the monkey-parts of our brains want to do the opposite, is what separates us from chimpanzees and gorillas. Without laws and the ability to follow them, man truly is just a more cunning kind of beast. (This is why war, with its notorious lack of rules, has a tendency to make animals out of otherwise law-abiding and conscientious people.)
But, of course, Trump’s comments have predictably sent the leftoid media into a frenzy. Many lefty outlets are claiming that when Donald Trump responded to Sheriff Mims’ comment about MS-13 by saying that the bad people coming into our country are “animals”, he meant that all illegal immigrants are animals.
Now I know I just said that the ability to follow laws is what makes us human. But run-of-the-mill illegal immigrants are not animals any more than people who drive ten miles above the speed limit on the interstate are hard-bitten criminals.
Are they breaking the law by entering the country illegally? Yes. Is it a problem? Yes, because lax border security encourages human trafficking and allows many more unsavory people into our country.
But there’s a crucial difference between people who illegally cross the border out of ignorance and in hopes of finding a better-paying job, and animals who illegally cross the border to sell drugs and behead rival gang members in cities all across America.
Sure, the first guy is breaking the laws that set our borders apart from Mexico’s. And those are important laws that create a crucial distinction between what is “our” country, and what is “their” country.
But the second guy is breaking the far more elemental law prohibiting the vicious murder of one man by another. He is acting directly against one of the crucial social compacts which separate us from the beasts. This principle lies bone-deep in the human psyche, carved out thousands of years ago in stone by the finger of God: “Thou shalt not kill.”
To cross a border unlawfully makes you a criminal. To kill and mutilate a rival gang member makes you an animal.
Obviously anyone with two brain cells to rub together can intuitively understand this distinction. But the liberals are still enjoying the chance to imply that Trump thinks all immigrants are “animals” when he very plainly was referring to the inhuman violence of gangs like MS-13.
But the leftists distorting a plain statement and blowing a conservative ideological stance out of proportion is nothing new. They’ve been doing this for years, and they’ll keep doing it for years to come. Because even though it doesn’t work, mindlessly repeating an action and relying on instinct rather than reason is a hallmark behavior of the left.
It’s also, ironically, a hallmark behavior of most animals.
