Donald Trump Shakes Up the 2016 Campaign

By Phyllis Schlafly, CP Op-Ed Contributor Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and author of 20 books. She is the co-author, with George Neumayr, of the New York Times Best-Seller titled 'No Higher Power: Obama's War on Religious Freedom.' — Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and author of 20 books. She is the co-author, with George Neumayr, of the New York Times Best-Seller titled "No Higher Power: Obama's War on Religious Freedom."

Liberals have perfected the art of exploiting a tragedy for political gain. We've just seen how the massacre of nine people at Bible study inside a Charleston, S.C. church -- apparently committed by a drug-using loser-drifter who dropped out of school after the ninth grade -- is being used to bring down the Confederate flag all over the South.

Donald Trump is proving that conservatives can play that game, too. Just days after Trump warned that "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems; they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime," a young woman was shot and killed while walking with her father after taking pictures at a popular San Francisco tourist attraction.

Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, the Mexican charged with killing Kate Steinle, may not have intended to kill anyone when his stolen gun was fired 3 times. But the larger point is that a Mexican convicted of 7 felonies who had been deported five times should not have been free to walk the streets of San Francisco on July 1.

Rarely has any political candidate been proved so tragically right so soon. But that hasn't stopped furious liberals from trying to make Trump the bad guy, pressuring NBC and other liberal corporations to break Trump's contracts for the Miss USA pageant, clothing at Macy's, and even a celebrity golf outing.

The San Francisco killing was not an isolated event. The very next day in Laredo, Texas, Angelica Martinez was killed with a hammer by Juan Francisco De Luna Vasquez, a Mexican who had been deported four times and twice convicted of entering our country illegally.

Murders are not the only crimes committed by previously deported Mexicans living here illegally. Serious crimes by automobile are also common, such as several hit-and-run crashes at opposite ends of the country within a week of the killings in San Francisco and Laredo.

In Maricopa, Arizona, on July 4, a woman driving with her two small children were hit and nearly killed by a Mexican illegally driving in the wrong lane. Manuel Perez-Vasquez had been deported to Mexico six times in the past three years; this time, Sheriff Paul Babeu plans to hold him as long as possible in the Pinal County jail instead of turning him over to ICE for another "catch and release."

In Raleigh, North Carolina, on July 3, DeShawn and Trazjae Moss were seriously injured when their car was hit head-on by a wrong-way drunk-driving Mexican, Efren Perez-Roblero. Although he was deported two years earlier, had no driver's license and fled the scene of the crash, he was released from jail after ICE determined he did not meet the Obama Administration's "current enforcement priorities."

A few days later in Raleigh, Stephanie Johnson was taken to the hospital after she was hit head-on by a truck driven the wrong way by a suspected drunk-driving illegal alien, Antonio Arellano, who had been previously deported after two previous DWI convictions. While Stephanie was lying injured in the street, Arellano ran away from the scene on foot and was arrested two days later, making it impossible to test his blood alcohol.

Although North Carolina is a long way from Mexico, the Tarheel State seems to attract Mexicans who cause mayhem while driving drunk and then flee the scene. Last November, two students at Wake County Community College were killed and two others injured by Mateo Guzman-Palacios, who is also known as Mateo Palacios Guzman, an unlicensed illegal immigrant from Mexico who had previously been deported three times.

Addressing nearly 10,000 people at the Phoenix Convention Center on Saturday, Donald Trump turned over the microphone to Jamiel Shaw Sr., who told the crowd how his 17-year-old son was cut down by an illegal alien's bullets while walking home in Los Angeles in the early evening of March 2, 2008. Jamiel Jr. was a rising scholar-athlete being recruited by Stanford when Pedro Espinoza shot him. The bullet to the head that killed Jamiel Jr. also penetrated his hand, leading his father to suggest that his son's last words were "hands up, don't shoot."

Most of the Republican establishment, including Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, have rushed to denounce Trump for raising the issue of criminal aliens from Mexico living in "sanctuary cities," or at least to tone down his rhetoric. Among Republican presidential candidates, only Sen. Ted Cruz and Dr. Ben Carson have welcomed Trump, with Dr. Carson saying "We need to discuss these things openly. I like people who are willing to say what they believe."

Dr. Carson, who previously fought back against a scurrilous accusation by the notorious Southern Poverty Law Center and forced it to apologize, often says that "political correctness is destroying our nation." When I evaluate a candidate, the ability to resist liberal pressure is the most important character trait. Trump and Carson are among the few who pass that test.

Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and author of 20 books. She is the co-author, with George Neumayr, of the New York Times Best-Seller titled "No Higher Power: Obama's War on Religious Freedom." You can read more of her writings at eagleforum.org.