President Donald Trump’s iron-fisted tactic to deter illegal immigration by separating migrant children, including toddlers, from their mothers and other family members ignited such a general uprising among Americans all along the political spectrum that it convinced Trump to reverse his ill-advised policy.
There is some comfort to take in witnessing so many people rising above partisan politics to express outrage over Trump’s perceived transgression against moral decency. Apparently, Americans of all persuasions can still agree on something — we don’t abide child abuse.
That doesn’t dismiss the reality that there are ideological firebrands who will always defend their side, right or wrong, no matter what. It doesn’t dismiss the opportunistic politicians who express concern about the migrant children’s welfare mostly because it serves their own.
It also doesn’t do anything to clarify and resolve the immigration issue. That lots of Americans don’t like kiddie concentration camps doesn’t mean Americans have changed their fundamental positions on illegal immigration.
While the Democrats are taking maximum advantage of the public outrage to condemn Trump and his GOP collaborators as unprincipled, cold-blooded, xenophobic fascists, they say little about the factual realities of illegal immigration.
Both sides are engaging in gross hyperbole about immigration, but there is truth in Trump’s contention that lax enforcement of immigration laws allows vicious criminals, illicit drugs and unvetted health risks into the country. While his use of the term “infestation” to describe massive illegal immigration is indelicate — intended to delight his seething base and infuriate his politically correct foes — the truth is that illegal immigration has been an ongoing invasion for several decades now.
It is also true that the vast majority of illegal immigrants, other than having broken immigration laws, are not dangerous criminals.
The truth is that the invasion of illegal immigrants is effectively by invitation. Most of them are employed by American companies and individuals who have become accustomed to — even dependent upon — their low-cost labor. The truth is our economy eagerly absorbs this invasion.
Our immigration system is broken only to the extent that our immigration laws have not been diligently or consistently enforced. Now, along comes Trump, who campaigned on enforcing those laws and, as president, is actively doing so.
While those laws allow sequestering the children of incarcerated illegal immigrants, it doesn’t require the president to do so. Trump’s predecessors did little or any of it, but he was within the law to do so — and being the guy he is, he did.
Many, many, Americans didn’t like that he did, irritably declaring we must fix our “broken immigration system.” It doesn’t require quantum physics to “fix” the immigration issue, but it does require deciding what we want to do about it.
Considering that there are today billions of desperate people in the world, including tens of millions in Latin America, who might love to emigrate to the United States, most rational Americans don’t want open borders as the nation had back in the 19th century when there were plenty of frontier lands to steal from the natives.
If we want to restrict immigration, then we must protect our borders and enforce our immigration laws. Building the Great Wall of America along our Southern border is not efficient, effective or necessary. Increasingly, illegal immigrants come by sea and air. Many come legally and simply overstay their visas. Walls won’t prevent any of that.
What keeps most illegal immigrants here is employment. By simply requiring all employers to confirm the residency status of all employees via the federal E-Verify system, and severely punishing those employers who do not comply, a significant amount of illegal immigration would be averted.
When temporary, seasonal foreign labor is needed, it could be had through legal programs designed to properly screen migrant workers and ensure that they have decent working conditions.
What to do about the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) kids has stymied our prickly partisan Congress. It shouldn’t.
Americans cared enough about the welfare of children that they demanded an immediate end to separating migrant families at the border. The DACA kids — yes, many of them are older now — were as innocent as any children brought in tow across the border. They are just as deserving of our compassion and concern, and should not be separated from the only country they have known.
Today, many migrants at the U.S. border are claiming asylum. Under U.S. and international law, asylum may be granted to people who are unable or unwilling to return to their home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
However, poor economic conditions, violent crime, corrupt politics, spousal abuse or inadequate health care are not generally recognized as reasons to grant asylum. If they were, many Americans could seek asylum in other countries.
The fact that the illegal immigration issue drags on, indicates that certain interests prefer the status quo. The forces of greed want to exploit the low-wage labor, while conniving partisan politicians find immigration a useful, incendiary issue to incite their base.
So, here we are, once again, confronting this festering, interminable, illegal immigration issue. If Americans expressed the same unified, concerted outrage over the chronic failure to resolve this issue as they did over the debacle of separating migrant families at the border, the immigration issue might quickly be resolved.
— Randy Alcorn is a Santa Barbara political observer. Contact him at randyaalcorn@gmail.com, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.