Jim Fossel’s Oct. 10 column on immigration (“Democrats’ inaction on immigration is coming home to roost“) was very lopsided. While he may have a point that Democrats didn’t do enough to stem the follow of undocumented immigrants, he ignores President Trump’s lack of interest in solving the problem. Trump torpedoed a bipartisan solution because that would have deprived him of a political talking point.

Fossel claims Democrats didn’t object when President Obama deported large numbers of immigrants, but Obama didn’t turn deportation into a cruel media spectacle. It is not widely known that Obama deported more than 5 million. According to the Migration Policy Institute, Obama focused on “the deportation of criminals and recent unauthorized border crossers.” (MPI also reports that both the Clinton and second Bush administrations deported many more than Obama.)

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security says it will deport 600,000 this year, or about one- eighth the number that Obama deported in four years and about a quarter of the rate under Clinton and Bush.

Trump campaigned on removing violent criminals, and if that’s what he actually was doing, there would be much less objection, especially if not done by masked gunmen kidnapping people off the street simply because they look nervous, according to regional Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino. Who wouldn’t be nervous if approached by people with guns and no identification?

Trump’s approach to immigration is, like his overall approach to governing, full of shock and awe. Fossel should acknowledge that Trump’s approach may be no more effective than that of his predecessors in both parties.

Robert Howe
Brunswick