- Incoming - 24th September 2025
- Abuse of power… - 23rd September 2025
- Foreign affairs - 22nd September 2025
During the 42 year journalistic career of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry major political stories have always loomed large, so he is intrigued by the advice from Donald Trump to use soldiers in cracking down on immigration, and attacking Europe for doing “nothing” about it, when research appears to show that immigrants (whether ‘legal’ or not) have a huge beneficial effect.
Facts have never been a strong point of the American president.
But ignoring the absurdity of this, Donald Trump suggested to Sir Keir Starmer that he could use the military to stop immigration.
Mr Trump said he discussed migration issues with Sir Keir during a meeting at his country residence Chequers.
Yet even in the hours after last week’s news conference his ridiculous comments were ‘fact-checked’ by the media: ‘President Donald Trump used his Thursday news conference with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer to deliver a laundry list of long-debunked false claims about a variety of subjects, including inflation, immigration, tariffs and the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021′.
Adding: ‘Speaking of migration to the US under Biden, Trump complained about the number of people entering the country without being vetted, then said, “25 million, in my opinion, that would be about 25 million.” Even Trump’s previous “21 million” figure was a wild exaggeration. Through December 2024, the last full month under the Biden administration, the federal government had recorded under 11 million nationwide “encounters” with migrants during that administration, including millions who were rapidly expelled from the country; even adding in the so-called gotaways who evaded detection, estimated by House Republicans as being roughly 2.2 million, there’s no way the total was even close to what Trump has said’.
Another media outlet declared: ‘Since taking office on 20 January, President Donald Trump has announced a flurry of immigration-related executive orders, paving way for a widespread effort to crack down on undocumented migrants in the US.
‘In more than 21 actions, Trump has moved to overhaul parts of the US immigration system, including how migrants are processed and deported from the US.
‘A cornerstone of Trump’s immigration policy is removing unlawful migrants out of the US and the promise of “mass deportations”.
‘To that effect, the defence department has said that it will provide military aircraft to deport more than 5,000 people that have been detained by Border Patrol in San Diego and El Paso, Texas’.
But that: ‘Over the weekend, Trump’s deportation flights caused a brief diplomatic spat after Colombia’s government barred two military planes carrying Colombians deported from the US from landing.
‘The country’s president, Gustavo Petro, said that “the US can’t treat Colombian migrants like criminals” and that they need to be “treated with dignity”‘.
Saying: ‘About 270,000 migrants were estimated to be on the Mexican side of the border waiting to get appointments through (a now-cancelled smartphone app), according to government figures obtained by CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
‘The move was met with anguish by migrants who had travelled long journeys to the border, and who had waited months to secure those appointments.
‘Advocates say that, with its removal, there is now no practical pathway to protection for arriving migrants.
‘The American Civil Liberties Union has since filed a legal challenge against the app’s closure’.
Yesterday Mr Trump took a big swipe at European countries, when he addressed the UN, with his perception of their attitude towards immigration, saying: “Europe is in serious trouble…illegal aliens are pouring in…(and they are doing)…absolutely nothing about it”.
He stated: “…the immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of western Europe if something is not done immediately”.
As media reports have made clear Mr Trump APPEARS to be talking about ‘ILLEGAL’ immigration (it is always difficult to tell with him!), but whether lawful or not looking at the figures it seems indisputable that people from other countries have been a major boon:
- Skills gaps are filled.
- The economy benefits from hard-working people.
- Public services are helped, for example workers in the NHS.
- Tax revenue increases.
- Culture is enriched, such as world foods and festivals.
- The birth rate is boosted.
Quite apart from the positive effects of legal migration, it might become difficult to demonise those looking for asylum who risk life and limb to cross the channel in the middle of the night, when you know who they are.
Do they understand the system for ‘processing’? “Not much, to be honest with you”, said an Iraqi man in Northern France waiting to cross to the UK who has a degree in English literature. “I only think about how to fill my belly and where to sleep”.
Why then do they come. and why are people like Mr Trump so exercised about it? “It has the best language”, says a young Yemeni man in a migrant camp west of Dunkirk. “It has the best security”, says an Iraqi. It is “perfect”, adds his friend.
An Egyptian doctor told reporters: “I don’t want to take anything from the government”. He has been refused permission to work.
It seems that the constructive financial impact of immigration generally is also profound.
- Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts have generally estimated that higher net migration leads to lower deficits and debt, because migrants tend to be of working age.
- Official impact assessments in early 2024 projected that restricting skilled work migration would have a negative fiscal effect.
In Wales the favourable result of immigration is everywhere to see – from a curry house in the street, to immigrant carers, to a huge boost to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Popular opinion seems to be in favour as well.
Most respondents to a recent poll (54 per cent) agreed with the idea that immigrants often do jobs Welsh people do not want to do, and 42 per cent said immigration was a good thing for Wales because of the nation’s ageing population.
So it can be seen that incomers should not be demonised, have to confront soldiers, or face warnings that countries should do ‘something’ about them – they should be WELCOMED!
You need to check your FACTS Mr Trump…
The memories of Phil’s, remarkable decades long award-winning career in journalism (during which reporting facts was paramount) as he was gripped by the rare and incurable neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Tomorrow – how it’s emerged that a Wales-based conspiracy theorist who has compared herself to controversial David Icke, and threatened to sue The Eye, mistakenly used a parody online account of provocative far-right former columnist Katie Hopkins asking for the address of a man, soon after he had begun a long jail sentence for stalking.
