The new Republican Policy platform, the "Pledge to America," offers a number of unrealistic and even undesirable policy proposals on immigration and national security that are worth noting.
• Keep Terrorists Out of America: We will prevent the government from importing terrorists onto American soil. We will hold President Obama and his administration responsible for any Guantanamo Bay detainees they release who return to fight against our troops or who have become involved in any terrorist plots or activities.
Interesting idea. First off, there are already 359 convicted terrorists on American soil, 240 of which the government says have ties to international terrorism. That's more than the number of accused terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison, which currently number 174. Is the GOP going to deport all the ones who are currently here? Guantanamo is also a huge money hole. It costs $16 million a year to maintain the detention camp in Cuba, 650,000 dollars a year per prisoner. By contrast, it takes 27,251 dollars a year to house a federal prisoner in the United States. Fiscally responsible!
• Demand an Overarching Detention Policy: Foreign terrorists do not have the same rights as American citizens, nor do they have more rights than U.S. military personnel. We will work to ensure foreign terrorists, such as the 9/11 conspirators, are tried in military, not civilian, court. We will oppose all efforts to force our military, intelligence, and law enforcement personnel operating overseas to extend “Miranda Rights” to foreign terrorists.
The GOP, in their reverence for due process, seems to have forgotten the whole "innocent until proven guilty" part of how trials work. They're not terrorists unless they are proved to be terrorists in a court of law. There have been hundreds of civilian terrorism convictions in civilian court since 9/11, the vast majority of which were secured by the Bush administration. There have been four military commissions convictions in the past decade, and they are currently facing legal challenges that may put past and future convictions in doubt. What Republicans are promising here isn't just a departure from the prior administration; it would ensure that fewer terrorists are brought to justice.
Moreover, this document gives the impression that military personnel are tried in "military commissions." They're not; they're tried in courts-martial. Military commissions were invented out of whole cloth to give the government an edge in terrorism cases. Whoever wrote this document either doesn't know the difference, or is lying, neither of which should inspire much confidence.
Finally, law enforcement doesn't "extend" Miranda rights to foreign terrorists. Anyone, regardless of citizenship, already has Miranda rights if they are apprehended on American soil, unless the public-safety exception is invoked. Moreover, when the administration began offering to work with Republicans on legislation to "modify" Miranda, Republicans balked because they know this complaint is nonsense and they just want to be able to attack law enforcement for upholding the law whenever a terrorist suspect is arrested.
• Establish Operational Control of the Border: We must take action to secure our borders, and that action starts with enforcing our laws. We will ensure that the Border Patrol has the tools and authorities to establish operational control at the border and prohibit the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture from interfering with Border Patrol enforcement activities on federal lands.
What is "operational control of the border?" If you have no idea, you're not alone. If "securing" the border means anything resembling a near or complete halt to illegal immigration, it's an impossible promise to fulfill. Spending on border security grew ninefold between 1993 and 2010, while illegal immigration only increased, right up until the recession. Promising to "secure the border" without some kind of reform that increases the legal avenues for foreign workers who want to come to the U.S. and work legally is like promising to put taxpayer dollars in a giant bucket and set it on fire.
There's one bright spot in the GOP's "pledge." No where are their any promises, euphemistic or otherwise, to ensure that torturous "enhanced interrogation techniques" are used again. Although having attacked Obama for months over ending torture, it begs the question of why, if torture is so important to national security, Republicans haven't put it in their policy platform. It's almost as if they were willing to lionize torture just to make the administration look bad.
