On May 5, the US Department of Homeland Security announced that immigrants in the US can use a smartphone app to claim free plane tickets and $1,000 payments if they’re willing to “self-deport.”

During her Senate confirmation hearing for the position of DHS secretary, Kristi Noem promised that “on day one, CBP One will be shut down.”

CBP One was (and is), a phone app used by immigrants to interact with US Customs and Border Protection [sic]. By “shut down,” it turns out she meant “re-named CBP Home and tilted  toward encouraging immigrant ‘self-deportation’ rather than facilitating asylum claims.”

Since changing the app’s name, the woman popularly referred to as “ICE Barbie,” and not in a flattering way, has promoted it in television commercials:

“If you are here illegally [sic] … you will be fined nearly $1,000 a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will never return. But if you register using our CBP Home app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.”

So in the space of a couple of months, it’s gone from a $1,000 per day fine to $1,000 in pocket money and a free plane ticket.  What’s not to like, other than the idiotic idea that it’s a GOOD thing for productive workers to flee the United States, let alone get paid to do so?

Well, there’s this:

Who on Earth would trust the US government, Donald Trump, or Kristi Noem with their location and other information, or believe that the supposed future path to “return legally,” or even that the plane ticket and thousand bucks would actually happen?

If I’m an immigrant in the US who doesn’t possess one of those Very Special Magical Important Permission Slips to travel to, move to, or work at anywhere I please, I doubt I’d be inclined to tell Trump, Noem, CBP or ICE where to find me. They’re simply not trustworthy.

And why the sudden honey to hide the smell of the vinegar?

Well, Trump’s vaunted “mass deportation” program doesn’t seem to be going very well. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the administration is only on track to deport half its goal of one million immigrants this year (and every year after).

If anything, the early number in “mass deportation” should run well ahead of, rather than behind, future numbers. It’s “easy pickins'” right now. As time goes on, immigrants will get better, not worse, at hiding from Trump’s roving gangs of “immigration enforcement” thugs.

Of course, we’re used to presidents over-promising and under-delivering. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1954 “Operation Wetback” program claimed to have deported 1.1 million immigrants, but the more likely number was about 300,000 — and “Operation Wetback” was accompanied by a credible, and fulfilled, promise that many of those deported would be able to return with work visas under the “Bracero” program, rather than the non-credible Trumpian “maybe” claim.

The current “mass deportation” effort is evil, ugly, and incredibly damaging to the US economy. Fortunately, it seems to be failing. So now you know why they’re offering those plane tickets and payouts.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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Donald Trump wants Americans to start having more babies and, the New York Times reports, is mulling possible financial incentives (like $5,000 government checks for mothers upon childbirth) and “educational” initiatives (i.e. classes to help women figure out when they’re ovulating so they can get pregnant more easily) to achieve the goal.

But the US government has encouraged and subsidized having kids for decades.

Child/dependent tax credits.

Tax deductions for buying homes to house the kids.

Welfare programs like WIC to help feed the kids.

Spreading the costs of “public education” around to non-parents so that parents don’t have to cover those costs themselves.

If subsidizing kids got the job done, we wouldn’t be seeing the birthrate decline we’re seeing — and there’s no particular reason to believe that boosting the subsidies even higher will change the fact that in ever more prosperous societies, people choose to have ever fewer children.

And if that whole program that sounds like a bad fit with Trump’s policy of trying to deport millions of foreign-born residents (who are seemingly more inclined to have the children he wants had), and even the native-born children of those residents, it is.

If you want a higher birth rate, throwing out the people who have kids makes zero sense.

Unless, that is, you couple the “demographic decline” panic with a “Great Replacement” theory positing that people who come to the United States and have kids are being “imported” for the express purpose of changing American politics and culture in particular and negative ways.

If you can successfully sell those claims as a pair, then you can justify both the deportations and the birth incentives.

To be fair, Trump is fairly good at selling silly ideas to gullible buyers. It’s how he built his “brand” in business. His various cons didn’t make him as much money as he’d have made from investing his inheritance in an S&P 500  indexed mutual fund, but they did make him more famous, and he seems to value the adoration of his marks more than he loves money.

But even Trump should have trouble putting over this double con.

“The Great Replacement” is real in the sense that people move and cultures change. But here’s the evidence that this particular cycle of movement and change, in this country, is part of an intentional conspiracy to create Democratic voters, corrupt our precious bodily fluids, etc.:

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America looks almost nothing like it looked 250 years ago, 150 years ago, or even 100 years ago, and almost nothing like it will probably look 100 years from now, because people move and cultures change.

Neither subsidizing childbirth nor deporting immigrants will magically freeze America at some “perfect” point in Donald Trump’s memory or imagination (Studio 54 in the late 1970s, maybe?).

Trump’s demand that you sacrifice your freedom and prosperity to such a project and start having more babies because REASONS has only one guaranteed result, in the now rather than in the future: Less of that freedom and prosperity.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

Amazon, Punchbowl News reported on April 29, “will soon show how much [US president Donald] Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product …. The shopping site will display how much of an item’s cost is derived from tariffs — right next to the product’s total listed price.”

Cue whining from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who called the idea “a hostile and political act.”

Amazon quickly backed down, saying it had “considered the idea” but wasn’t going to actually follow through.

Then, for some reason, Walmart felt the need to weigh in and announce that it also has no plans to let its customers know how much of what they pay is due to Trump’s tax hikes on you because it does “not itemize what goes into the cost of goods on our website.”

That’s an odd claim. To test it, I just went to Walmart’s website and  put an item (supposedly priced at $17.16) into my cart.

Whaddayaknow, when I got to the checkout screen, the site itemized “estimated taxes” of $1.71, as well as $6.99 in shipping charges. Are those not “costs of goods” on their website?

The “estimated taxes” on that screen are state and local sales taxes. Most stores in most states (and on the Internet) break those tax costs out. In fact, in some states, they’re required by law to do so, which is why when you see an item for $1.99 at your local grocery store, you have to do a little mental arithmetic and add, say, $2.10 instead of $1.99 to your running total.

Imposing taxes on consumers is a “hostile and political act.”

From a business point of view, it makes sense to let customers know who’s imposing these  latest massive tax hikes. That way the customers know who to blame for — and who to hold accountable for — unnecessarily higher prices.

Why should tariffs be treated any differently than sales taxes? They’re taxes. You’re paying them. Why are Amazon, Walmart, and likely other businesses running and hiding instead of telling you so?

The only explanation that makes sense is fear. American businesses know that Trump can hurt them in various ways, from taxation and regulation to urging his base to boycott businesses who tell the truth to their customers. Who can blame them for fearing his wrath?

Truth, someone once said, is the first casualty of war.

Trump is waging war on all of us, in this case on our ability to buy the goods we need and want to live our lives. He doesn’t want us to know that, and rages against us knowing.

Amazon and Walmart shouldn’t let fear push them into our enemy’s ranks. They should tell us the truth … with every sale.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY