Trump Admin's 'Funny Numbers': How to Vanish 2 Million People with a Survey
Axios dutifully reports on the Trump administration's declaration that 2 million undocumented immigrants were 'removed or self-deported' in 250 days. The catch? 80% are 'self-deported,' a figure conjured from government survey data—a survey the Census Bureau itself warns shouldn't be used for foreign-born population estimates. (Apparently, asking someone if they're still here, then assuming
they're gone if they don't answer, is rigorous methodology.) This isn't just 'funny numbers'; it’s a time-honored tradition of manipulating statistics to create desired policy outcomes. Just last week, Secretary of State Blinken lauded Israel's 'precision strikes' while simultaneously ignoring the verifiable 30,000+ Palestinian civilian deaths, including 13,000 children, as reported by the Gaza
Health Ministry. The playbook is simple: invent metrics that validate your narrative, then accuse critics of bias. One might wonder, how many civilian casualties can you ‘self-deport’ from the official count with enough rhetorical smoke and mirrors?