Trump Supporter Authors Op-Ed Calling Immigrants 'Pests and Vermin'

Highlighting one reason why so many Republicans remain weary of presumptive nominee Donald Trump, a supporter authored an op-ed referring to immigrants as “pests and vermin.” It wasn’t a passing reference either. Author Ron Scarbro premised his piece in the local Minnesota newspaper The Newsleaders on the notion of immigrants as subhuman and destructive. He presented three potential approaches to the “infestation” modeled on the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump.

Here’s his reference to the latter:

The final listing on the Yellow Pages is Deport Or Nail Aliens and Lowlife Drug Smugglers, or “DONALD’S.” Their operator is emphatic. Vermin and pests are just that, vermin and pests. They don’t belong in your house. You didn’t invite them in and they refuse to leave. If you don’t act and act quickly, they will gnaw at the foundation of your house until it’s destroyed. They will continue to reproduce, thereby creating millions more of their kind to destroy not only your house but your neighbor’s as well. Here at DONALD’S we have a special treatment that denies these pests and vermin food or opportunity. It’s called “E-Verification of Citizenship.” We don’t even have to kill them. They leave on their own because they find the living conditions intolerable. They go scrambling back to where they came from. Then DONALD’S builds a wall to prevent them from ever returning. At that point you can rebuild your home strengthened in the knowledge future visitors will be here only by invitation.

The article prompted predictable outrage, moving the paper’s editorial board to issue an apology for “smearing immigrants.”

Whatever your position on immigration, such rhetoric remains completely indefensible. Yet it fits thematically with the campaign of the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, which means that Republicans will be expected to defend it going forward. That is among many reasons that #NeverTrump endures, because this kind of dehumanizing sentiment has no business being associated with the Republican Party.