Paul Krugman Calls Trump’s Immigration Policy A Blood Libel

Image by Getty Images

By Ben Sales June 23, 2018

(JTA) — Lots of people have been comparing the government’s policy of separating families to the Holocaust.

But Paul Krugman, the liberal’s liberal economics columnist at the New York Times, has a different Jewish historical analogy: He says the policy is like the age-old blood libel against the Jewish people.

The blood libel is an ancient, recurring smear against Jews, falsely accusing them of killing Christian children and using their blood for ritual purposes (like drinking it or baking it into matzah for Passover). The libel has shown up throughout the centuries across Europe, parts of the Middle East and even in the United States.

Krugman said the false, fantastical nature of the blood libel is a lot like the accusations President Trump and his allies throw at immigrants: that droves of them they take American jobs, commit a disproportionate amount of crimes and kill native-born Americans.

Krugman cites statistics showing that the opposite is true: Immigration rates are not spiking. Crime rates are lower in areas with a large number of immigrants. And most economists don’t believe immigrants depress wages for low-income, uneducated Americans.

“I don’t know what drives such people — but we’ve seen this movie before, in the history of anti-Semitism,” Krugman wrote. “The thing about anti-Semitism is that it was never about anything Jews actually did. It was always about lurid myths, often based on deliberate fabrications, that were systematically spread to engender hatred.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO