As if it weren’t bad enough that out-of-touch Hollywood elites have social media and award shows as platforms to proselytize for political agendas they don’t understand, The Guardian is now running immigration analysis articles by Alyssa Milano. Yes, the same Alyssa Milano who so generously offered to foster immigrant children in her own home – then didn’t.
“The US immigration system is one that restricts legal entry and all but guarantees death for those who cross,” Alyssa Milano writes. This is the opening line of an article titled, “Jakelin Caal’s death shines a light on a broken immigration system,” apparently written by the actress herself.
Avoidable Tragedy
Milano devotes the opening paragraphs of her story on the plight of young Jakelin and the dangers of her journey – one which regularly proves deadly for adults. This is an attempt to humanize the seven-year-old and build sympathy for her. This shouldn’t be necessary – anyone who doesn’t care when a child dies from abuse or neglect is a terrible person, regardless of politics – but it also contains the answer to why the girl died just 48 hours after being detained.
She traveled 2,000 miles from Guatemala in the company of dangerous smugglers, likely facing, as Milano writes, “violence, harassment, harsh conditions and constant fear.” She turned seven during the migration “on a route where between 60% and 80% of women and girls are raped or sexually assaulted.”
It is evident from the article that Milano blames Trump and the White House, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and anyone else who wants asylum seekers to go through official ports of entry and announce themselves.
She doesn’t blame, however, the father. Nope. Not his fault his seven-year-old daughter went on a 2,000-mile hike through a desert, then died just hours later of septic shock, fever, and dehydration. Still, it’s not as if CBP didn’t try to keep her alive. They transported her to a larger facility, with better medical resources, when they noticed signs of illness. EMTs had to revive her twice. She was flown to a hospital in El Paso, TX, where they tried to save her, but she died despite their efforts.
Death All but Guaranteed
Milano highlights the 74 people who have died since 2010 – 75, now that a young boy from Guatemala died early Christmas Day – as if that proves her point that the system all but guarantees death to any who are detained.
Let’s dig a bit into the numbers. According to CBP, they have apprehended 2,627,309 people at or near the border since 2014. An older report goes back to 2012, bringing the total to 3,398,579. That doesn’t quite get us to 2010, but let’s call it close enough. Even if all 75 deaths had been since 2012, CBP only lost one in every 45,314 detainees – nearly all of whom just completed a deadly trek across a desert without adequate food, water, or shelter.
Building the Wall
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”24″]… she doesn’t care enough to actually do anything. [/perfectpullquote]If only there were some way to convince people not to expose their children to the deadly conditions of an illegal border crossing … Would it not be better to have in place a physical barrier that would be all but impossible to cross? It’s one thing to decide to make the attempt when arrest and deportation might await, but who would pack up their lives and make a mad dash for the border, only to be left standing in the desert, staring at a big wall they can’t just walk across?
Like most on the left, Alyssa Milano certainly doesn’t think this would help. Now, personally, I have a problem with any suggestion that involves billions of additional tax dollars when we should be cutting federal spending, not ramping it up. But as Liberty Nation’s Leesa K. Donner reported, there’s a GoFundMe campaign to pay for a border wall, and it’s doing quite well. At the time of this writing, it’s up to $17,109,792 – and it’s only nine days old!
As if to show just how out of touch with reality she is, the actress took to Twitter Dec. 20 to take a shot at it:
Oh, yes! Let's #GoFundTheWall while not taking care of our veterans. Cool. Cool. Cool.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 20, 2018
She seems to have missed the fact that the man who started that campaign, Brian Kolfage, is a disabled veteran who lost both legs and an arm in service. Oh, and he actively supports wounded vets through his business.
The Empty Calorie of Political Speech
If it seems like Milano’s declarations hold no real meaning, that’s because she’s just virtue signaling. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, she doesn’t care enough to actually do anything – for immigrants or wounded vets – and she’s only a part of the conversation because she used to be famous, and now she’s struggling to remain relevant. Like any other example of virtue signaling, the words themselves don’t matter – just the dramatic way they’re delivered. It’s the empty calorie of political speech, and like most progressive stars, it seems that’s all Alyssa Milano excels at anymore.
