Trump and illegal immigrants
Donald Trump wants to build a border wall to keep out caravans of immigrants from Latin America - mostly people from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
In fact, so determined is he to build the wall that he asked Congress for the money to build it; and when Congress refused to give him the money, it resulted in the longest government shutdown in US history.
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While a presidential candidate, he had said he would make Mexico pay for the wall he wanted to build. After his election, he realised that plan was not feasible; so he asked Congress for the money.
But Congress would not budge; and with his pride hurt, Donald Trump has continued to rail against immigrants from Latin America.
He claims: "Nearly 100 per cent of heroin in the United States enters through the southern border. Almost 100 per cent of heroin comes in through the southern border.
along with roughly 90 per cent of cocaine."
It is estimated that every day. about 1,500 to 2,000 people try crossing the US border illegally. These immigrants plan to seek asylum in the United States. But on average, an asylum case takes three and half years to complete; and most of these asylum applications are rejected. And the truth is that, these immigrants are fleeing poverty and not persecution: 'Asylum is not a programme for those living in poverty. Then? are billions of people in the world living at the poverty level. The United States cannot possibly absorb them all. Asylum is a very special protection intended only for those fleeing government persecution based on race, reli&ion and other protected status" Trump has said.
But closer home, Donald Trump's better half. Melania — herself an immigrant from Slovenia has come under fire for the very issue that her husband is raving against that she herself was an illegal immigrant - and that her husband is a hypocrite and not the steadfast defender of Americas borders that he claims to be.
The US website, Politico, reports that there is clear evidence to suggest that she was, in fact, an undocumented immigrant who worked in the US illegally. Politico places her in the United States one year earlier than she has previously claimed, and says she may have been on a B-1 business visa, not an H-1B work visa—which means that she likely committed visa fraud and worked in the country illegally.
Back in February, in one of her first interviews, she aggressively defended her husband's immigration policies by asserting that she was one of the good immigrants: *l followed the law. 1 never thought to stay here without papers. I had a visa, I travelled every few months back to Slovenia to stamp the visa. I came back. I applied for the green card. and I applied for the citizenship later on after many years of green card. So I went by the system, I went by the law. And you should do chat, you should not just say let me stay here and
whatever happens, happens."
Trump's illegal immigration rhetoric is largely about race and kicking non white people out of what some Americans think is a white country. In fact. I remember hearing Trump say once that he favoured immigration from countries such as Norway.
This betrays his real motive for his steadfast policies meant to keep Latinos and Latinas out of the United States of America; and that America is a white country and all other people who are non-white arc not welcome. latinos and Larinas are an important voting bloc in America; leading to Congress currently having the largest number of elected Latinos and latinas in its history. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is perhaps the most well-known Latina in Congress; and is a huge star too.
In fact, Canadians form one of the largest population of illegal immigrants in the United States. So why doesn't Trump go after the Canadians? The obvious reason is that these Canadians are overwhelmingly white and that they cannot be grist for his mill.
The writer is a political analyst. E-mail: [email protected]