Rich Lowry: ‘Donald Trump Has A Point’ About Illegal Immigrants

Rich Lowry, columnist for Politico and contributor to the National Review, has released a new piece that has the web buzzing.

While many media outlets have been taking shots at Donald Trump in the wake of his controversial comments on illegal immigration, Lowry has this message.

“Sorry, Donald Trump has a point.”

Here’s a fuller excerpt from the piece, published first in Politico, in which Rich Lowry goes to bat for Trump.

“The shunning of Trump is in response to his uh, memorable presidential announcement that included comments about the alleged criminality of Mexican immigrants that were typically crude. Trump could make a statement about arcane tax policy details related to accelerated depreciation for business investment — and still make you want to take a shower afterward…

“As for his instantly notorious Mexico comments, they did more to insult than to illuminate, yet there was a kernel in them that hit on an important truth that typical politicians either don’t know or simply fear to speak. ‘When Mexico sends its people,’ Trump said, ‘they’re not sending their best.'”

“This is obviously correct. We aren’t raiding the top 1 percent of Mexicans and importing them to this country. Instead, we are getting representative Mexicans, who — through no fault of their own, of course — come from a poorly educated country at a time when education is essential to success in an advanced economy.”

“Trump’s comments made it sound as though Mexico is sending us moral defectives. That’s not the larger problem (although gangs certainly exploit the border and there are criminals in any population). Immigrants are willing to work. Immigrant men aged 18-65 are in the labor force at a higher rate than native men.”

“It’s just that a lack of education is an anchor around even the hardest-working person in modern America…”

Rich Lowry may not have won any more friends than he already had for those statements, but he certainly got people talking.

Thus far, there have been more than 12,000 comments on the Politico piece and many more at the National Review.

Some call Trump a “racist pig” and lash out at Lowry for defending him, while others point out that while Trump isn’t the most eloquent of speakers, he highlights “the major problems our country faces that the other candidates refuse to discuss.”

That may, in fact, be what Trump is trying to accomplish. To rile up the Republican base while acting as a filter for the other Republican candidates.

Even so, he continues to poll well among the crowded primary field, with some polls showing him No. 2 behind Jeb Bush at this stage of the game.

What do you think about Trump’s illegal immigration comments and about the defense that Rich Lowry posits for the Donald? Sound off in the comments section.

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