OPINION: Kemp’s hypocrisy disregards the humanity of migrants – Red and Black

Brian Kemp has been through the wringer.

The first-term governor and University of Georgia alum has caught flak from all sides. Liberals and leftists have derided him since day one for trying to make Georgia 19th century again, whether that be in terms of abortion or voting rights. But surprisingly, the Trump loyalists of the state have been ready to sic the dogs on Kemp, too. To them, he had not gone far enough to essentially steal the Democrat victory in 2020 for former president Donald Trump.

Kemp may need a public image retool to have a shot to keep his office in 2022, so leave it to the self-proclaimed politically incorrect conservative to resort back to what put him on the map in the first place in 2018: xenophobia.

It would be one thing if Brian Kemp just brought his truck back out and revived his promise to round up criminal illegals. Frankly, this rhetoric around the border is boiler-plate for the new wave of Republicans, so it wouldn't be out of place. But if hes going to spew anti-migrant bile, Kemp might as well be consistent.

In order to understand Kemps pick-and-choose logic about immigration, we have to look at the nexus of migrant and refugee crises that we find ourselves in as a nation and a state. Just in recent months, there has been a surge of Haitians crossing our southern border after a torrential hurricane and political instability; the fallout of our deadly follies in nation-building in Afghanistan; and the ongoing abuse and terror committed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on asylum seekers from various parts of the world.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE, under Barack Obama, Trump and now Joe Biden, has caged human beings, ripped children from their families, blown up native burial sites for the border wall and is now potentially carrying out what could be the largest mass expulsion of would-be asylum-seekers in recent American history. We used to try government officials at The Hague for such deliberate disregard for the value of humanity. No party has clean hands here.

In fact, Biden has cited COVID-19 concerns to turn away this wave of migrants, but NBC News has reported that they are not using the surplus of testing kits at the governments disposal. Trump used this same tactic.

The policy has changed, said Kemp on Fox News on Sept. 22. He refers to some stark difference in border policy between a hawkish Trump and an open-borders Biden that just isnt there. Trumps senior policy advisor Stephen Miller came up with claiming public health concerns to blanket deny migrants in the first place in 2020. Bidens DHS is actively appealing court decisions to continue his predecessors policy. On this issue, the policy is the same.

On Afghanistan, Kemp fares no better. In a statement on Aug. 17, the governor panned Bidens lack of preparation for the Taliban takeover, and signaled possible support of resettlement, albeit over an extended period of time with a thorough vetting process. Even this middle-of-the-road endorsement is an empty one, since such a process is the federal governments burden.

For a 20-year-long conflict to end that poorly, Trump was likely bound to fare the same, if not worse. Kemp never gave a statement decrying Trump's intended withdrawal, which would have removed troops months earlier than Biden. Time and time again, the plight of people trying to escape danger are interpreted differently depending on who's in charge.

Conservatives won the presidency in 2016 and the governorship in Georgia in 2018, and no small part of that was built on a foundation of scapegoating immigrants for the disenchantment many Americans and Georgians felt and still feel.

Now with Biden in office, Kemp is all at once trying to backpedal to a more centrist stance while still being cynically critical of the president. When Biden does something Trump might have done, it's a disaster. In the moments where Biden is tough on immigration, it's not enough.

Of course, little of this will matter in Kemps attempt to keep his job. His political career appears to be completely subject to Trumps will. The former president got closer to endorsing Stacey Abrams than giving Kemp any compliments at his packed rally in Perry, Georgia on Sept. 25.

For now, Brian Kemps time in the wringer continues. The more time Trump spends taking jabs at him to his Georgia faithful, the longer Kemp will have his work cut out for him.

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OPINION: Kemp's hypocrisy disregards the humanity of migrants - Red and Black