They came for Washington. Then Jefferson. Then Lincoln. Then (checks notes) Dianne Feinstein.
So, it’s no surprise that the woke mob would eventually come for the nation’s first Black president in Barack Obama, who is also known – at least in the immigration activist community – as an “oppressor.”
Why the backlash against the guy who left office with an approval rating of 58 percent? Because a Chicago school district wants to rename Thomas Jefferson Middle School after the 44th president, who also hails from the Windy City. Activists say Obama cannot even be considered for renaming of any school because he deported more undocumented immigrants than any president in history, including Donald Trump.
“I will not be part of renaming a school after someone who did not and does not represent the undocumented community,” explained school board member Edgar Castellanos to ABC-7 in Chicago.
“From the time Barack Obama became President until 2017 when he left, he today is still the highest-ranking president with deportations in our nation,” argued Julie Contreras, who operates facilities for migrant children at the U.S. Southern border. “We feel that Barack Obama did disservice to us. He denied us, and he didn’t stop the deportations the way he promised. If you’re removing the name of Thomas Jefferson, one oppressor, the name of Obama is another oppressor, and our families do not want to see that name.”
We heard a lot about mass deportations and “kids in cages” during the Trump presidency. But according to the Washington Post, Obama deported 1.18 million people in his first three years in office, while Trump deported just 800,000, or 32 percent fewer (the pandemic made the 4th year comparison mute).
The fact that Obama deported far more than Trump was rarely reported. Because why get in the way of the Trump-is-a-racist narrative that led to so many clicks and ratings during his tenure?
Regardless, Obama enforcing the laws of this country while not adopting an open borders policy makes him an oppressor to some on the left.
Perhaps these Chicago activists could visit the current crisis at the border sometime, where one facility in Donna, Texas, was described as an “overcrowded purgatory” by CBS News in holding “17 times” more people than what “the facility was built to hold.”
The Associated Press also has counted in the Biden administration’s main border detention facility for migrant children more than 4,000 people, “including children and families” who were crammed into a space intended for just 250 people. During a pandemic, no less.
In other words, given the dangerous conditions of these facilities, Obama may have done many undocumented migrants a favor by returning them home.
In San Francisco earlier this year, the school board, instead of focusing on getting its schools ready to reopen, used its time to rename schools in the Bay Area. Among the scourges who need to be eliminated from public discourse due to their racism were Abraham Lincoln – who only freed the slaves – and George Washington, the nation’s first president who freed us from the British. Also included in this purge was Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for reasons not quite clear.
Thankfully, even in deep blue California, parents said they had had enough and pushed back to the point that the school board agreed to shelve the idea, albeit temporarily. The parents are now suing the board to ensure the decision stays permanent.
In Wisconsin last summer, the statue of famed abolitionist Hans Christian Heg was toppled and thrown into a lake in the capital city of Madison. Heg died fighting the Confederate Army.
Fast forward to President Biden, who may get a school named after him in Chicago after declaring that deportations would be paused during his first 100 days in office (a judge blocked this move one month later). Between candidate Biden urging Central Americans to “immediately surge the border” and announcing to the world that deportations would be on hold for three months after his inauguration, one could easily point to these words and actions as having led to the disaster we have at the border now and for the foreseeable future.
Yep — The Joseph R. Biden Middle School does have a certain ring to it.
Because in WokeWorld, to honor Barack Obama, who refused to allow a crisis this disturbing and deadly at the border, cannot stand in the name of humanity. Or something.
Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist for The Hill.