# Shooting migrants: funny joke
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [May 9, 2019, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712 "2019-05-09T10:18:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712/1 "2019-05-09T10:18:41Z")
> **[Watch President Trump Laugh Over a Comment About Shooting Migrants](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/watch-trump-laugh-over-a-comment-about-shooting-migrants.html)**
>
> “How do you stop these people?” Trump asked. An audience member had an idea. “Shoot them,” he yelled, causing the president to laugh.
> [@](#):
>
> “You have hundreds and hundreds of [migrants] and you have two or three border security people that are brave and great — and don’t forget, we don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons,” Trump said, in Panama City Beach. “We can’t. Other countries do. We can’t, I would never do that. But how do you stop these people?” An audience member had an idea. “Shoot them,” he yelled, which caused the president, and much of the televised backdrop of crowd members, to laugh. “Only in the panhandle can you get away with that statement,” Trump said, interpreting the call to violence as a joke.
In case anyone is still unclear as to whether or not [it could happen here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%27t_Happen_Here): _it is happening here as we speak_.
Like, notice what’s going on here. That random audience member wasn’t exactly unprompted. Look at what Trump is saying: “[…]we don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons. We can’t. Other countries do. We can’t, I would never do that.” The implication here is clear - we’re the outlier because we aren’t randomly shooting people approaching the border, and while Trump would never recommend you _break the law_, isn’t it such a shame that our poor border patrol guards can’t defend themselves?
If he wasn’t explicitly looking for the “shoot them” response, he sure wasn’t surprised by it, or willing to push back on someone _calling for the border patrol to murder people_.
The most charitable interpretation of this is that Trump has failed to push back on the kind of statement that just is not funny any more given the radicalization and rise of far-right terrorism coming from his supporters. And that’s stretching credibility somewhat, given how he prompted exactly this response.
It’s yet another exceedingly fucked-up moment in this presidency that should make a difference.
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### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712/2 "2019-05-09T10:35:33Z")
The so-called president is widely regarded as a fucking con-man clown.
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### Author:  [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712/3 "2019-05-09T10:40:29Z")
…I didn’t listen to the video but I watched it. And the two black girls (obviously placed behind Trump as props) are a couple of heroes.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712/4 "2019-05-09T10:46:26Z")
Violent language and violent policies precipitate actual violence. Look at what’s happening now along the border: the administration has for the past year implemented a highly cruel and barbaric policy, which is directed not only at illegal entrants but legal asylum seekers. The administration makes no distinction between the two and instead labels them all as “invaders”. People have died as a result of these policies.
If that wasn’t enough, the administration is deliberately taking a very real humanitarian crisis and attempting to manufacture a political crisis along the US-Mexico border. We’re already aware that there had been discussions about releasing migrants in sanctuary cities, but what’s happening in Arizona is a prime example of what Trump’s anti-immigration radicals want to do. Assuming the reporting is accurate, there’s reportedly a simultaneously a surge in migrants in Yuma, AZ shelters while much larger Phoenix has seen a drop in the number of migrants in the shelters there.
> **[While shelter beds in Phoenix go empty, groups wonder why Border Patrol...](https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2019/04/29/yuma-migrant-emergency-phoenix-shelter-beds-go-empty/3555906002/)**
>
> Advocacy groups wonder if the Trump administration is intentionally shifting the release of migrant families from Phoenix to Yuma for political gain.
There’s also this story about an activist whose “crime” was protecting migrants who make a perilous border crossing – jailing someone for giving them temporary shelter and the essentials needed to survive, like water.
> **[Scott Warren Worked to Prevent Migrant Deaths in the Arizona Desert. The...](https://theintercept.com/2019/05/04/no-more-deaths-scott-warren-migrants-border-arizona/)**
>
> Thousands of migrants have died crossing the desert in Arizona. The U.S. government is prosecuting activists who try to save lives and recover bodies.
If all this is true, then it makes sense that Trump would laugh at a joke to shoot migrants. I don’t think we’re that far away from actual violence, particularly considering how the policies have already cruelly separated children from parents and resulted in migrant deaths while in detention.
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### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712/5 "2019-05-09T10:50:29Z")
> [@Representative Karen Bass](#):
>
> This is a video of the President laughing at the idea of shooting immigrants to stop them from coming into the US. If one person is harmed as a result of this speech, EVERY SINGLE PERSON who failed to condemn it is complicit.
>
> Blood will be on your hands.
>
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### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712/6 "2019-05-09T10:54:07Z")
> [@asahi](#):
>
> Violent language and violent policies precipitate actual violence. Look at what’s happening now along the border: the administration has for the past year implemented a highly cruel and barbaric policy, which is directed not only at illegal entrants but legal asylum seekers. The administration makes no distinction between the two and instead labels them all as “invaders”. People have died as a result of these policies.
>
> If that wasn’t enough, the administration is deliberately taking a very real humanitarian crisis and attempting to manufacture a political crisis along the US-Mexico border. We’re already aware that there had been discussions about releasing migrants in sanctuary cities, but what’s happening in Arizona is a prime example of what Trump’s anti-immigration radicals want to do. Assuming the reporting is accurate, there’s reportedly a simultaneously a surge in migrants in Yuma, AZ shelters while much larger Phoenix has seen a drop in the number of migrants in the shelters there.
>
> [There's a migrant emergency in Yuma but Phoenix shelter beds go empty](https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2019/04/29/yuma-migrant-emergency-phoenix-shelter-beds-go-empty/3555906002/)
>
> There’s also this story about an activist whose “crime” was protecting migrants who make a perilous border crossing – jailing someone for giving them temporary shelter and the essentials needed to survive, like water.
>
> [The Prosecution of No More Deaths Activist Scott Warren](https://theintercept.com/2019/05/04/no-more-deaths-scott-warren-migrants-border-arizona/)
>
> If all this is true, then it makes sense that Trump would laugh at a joke to shoot migrants. I don’t think we’re that far away from actual violence, particularly considering how the policies have already cruelly separated children from parents and resulted in migrant deaths while in detention.
Related: [Militia Member Stopping Migrants At Border Suggested "Lining Them Up And Shooting Them"](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/militia-member-border-migrants-hitler-gas-chamber-hate)
““Put Them All In A Gas Chamber,” A Militia Member Allegedly Said While Stopping Migrants At The Border
“Why are we just apprehending them and not lining them up and shooting them?” the militia member allegedly said.”
This is the same vigilante group, UCP, whose leader was arrested not too long ago:
> **[FBI Arrested Leader of Rogue Armed Group Kidnapping Migrants at the Border -...](https://www.fair360.com/fbi-arrested-leader-of-rogue-armed-group-kidnapping-migrants-at-the-border-2/)**
>
> Larry Mitchell Hopkins appears in federal court today after he was arrested on Saturday for leading a group kidnapping migrants at gunpoint on the border.|Larry Mitchell Hopkins appears in federal court today after he was arrested on Saturday for...
> [@](#):
>
> Larry Mitchell Hopkins, a 69-year-old felon, appears in federal court today after he was arrested on Saturday for leading a group that has been kidnapping migrants at gunpoint on the southern border.
>
> Hopkins was arrested in Sunland Park, N.M., on charges of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the FBI said. He was the leader of an armed group of American men that have been hunting migrants at the southern border, kidnapping them and holding them at gunpoint. The group is called the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP).
>
> The UCP is one of several illegal armed groups that has taken to stalking the border for migrants after a recent uptick in Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries.
It’s not that things are getting bad. It’s that they’re already incredibly bad and are getting worse.
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2019, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-migrants-funny-joke/833712/7 "2019-05-09T12:11:19Z")
I applaud the two black girls who were clearly uncomfortable with the racist fools around them and made no attempt to hide their disgust. I’m surprised they weren’t frog marched into a detention area by Secret Service and grilled about why they were so mean to Dear Leader.
The problem really isn’t Donald. It’s that there are so many who see him as giving them permission to act out on their racist tendencies. They may know that he doesn’t give a flying fuck about their health care or their jobs, they adore him because he hates the same people that they do. I certainly hope the better people get off their asses and vote this monster out next year.