Why Is Trump "The Bad Guy" On Immigration?

2.7 million persons deported.

Migrant children held in holding cells with temperatures as low as 50F degrees.

The death of 18 migrants while in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.

Pepper spray or tear gas used an average of once a month on immigrants trying to enter the U.S.

All of the members of the President's party in favor of a 700 mile fence and other security border security measures along the U.S. border with Mexico.

From what you read in the media today you would think I am referring to the Trump administration regarding these actions.

However, all of these are related to things that happened during the administration of Barack Obama.

It might be difficult to understand that based on what you see and hear from the media and the Democrats in Congress these days. In fact, new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and most Democrats are now saying that walls are immoral.

I guess the Vatican didn't get the memo.

Part of the wall surrounding The Vatican
Credit:Live Science

If walls are immoral are we to expect the Democrat House to also pass a law to dismantle the portions of the wall that already exists along the southern border?

For example, this is the wall that currently exists between Tijuana, Mexico and Pelosi's home state of California. Should we tear it down because it is immoral?

There were no laws limiting immigration into the United States for the first one hundred years of its existence. If you could get here, you could stay.

However, Congress was very concerned about who gained citizenship and who could vote from the very beginning. In fact, Congress passed its first naturalization law in 1790.

The first comprehensive immigration law regulating who was allowed into the country was not passed until 1891. It established an "Immigration Bureau" and directed it to enforce the immigration law.

These laws have been revisited a number of times since then but the long-standing principle was a limitation on the number of immigrants who could gain entry into the country. A numerical annual limit on the annual number of immigrants allowed to enter the country has been in place for almost 100 years.

The President of the United States swears an oath upon taking office that he will faithfully execute his duties in respect to enforcing and upholding the laws of the United States. Are there any Presidents since Eisenhower who took this oath seriously regarding immigration? Reagan tried in 1986 and even provided amnesty to the 3 million illegals who were here at that time. What happened? We now have even more illegals here today. (see below).

The current immigration laws are generally tied to a framework that was passed in 1965 which gave preferences to those with family connections first, refugees and asylum seekers. Necessary job skills were also factors but these were less important than family ties. It also set numerical limits on where those immigrants came from placing specific limits on areas that had provided most of our previous immigration (e.g. Western and Eastern Europe).

Interestingly, at the time of passage of the bill, Senator Edward Kennedy who was Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration said this,

"The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs." 

It did not quite turn out the way Senator Kennedy predicted.

As I wrote in a previous blog post, there are 3 million immigrants who were born out of the country living in New York City alone. 500,000 of that number are from one country---the Dominican Republic.

There were less than 10 million total immigrants living in the United States in 1970. That was less than 5% of the population. Today there are close to 45 million immigrants in this country. This includes an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. However, a recent MIT/Yale study suggests that the actual number of illegals in the U.S. is 22 MILLION. If that number is accurate, people born outside the United States make up over 16% of the population.

The current U.S. immigration laws provide the opportunity for slightly more than 1 million immigrants a year to migrate to the United States LEGALLY.  1.1 million were granted permanent legal immigrant status in 2017.

Although the United States has less than 5% of the world's population, 20% of all international migrants reside in the United States. By pure numbers, the estimated immigrant population of 44 million is 4 TIMES as many who live in any other country in the world.

Why have immigration laws at all?

The original reason was to protect American workers, their wages and the country's culture. These all hold true today but I would argue sustainability is now an equally important factor. Too many immigrants puts too much strain on our resources. Schools, hospitals, health care resources, roads, infrastructure, the environment. Adding too many immigrants, too quickly, also puts added pressure on the social order if those immigrant numbers outpace the ability to integrate and assimilate them into the general population. This is exactly what is happening in Europe right now.

If you think the United States could survive an "open borders" policy as some Democrats advocate  I suggest you look at this recent Gallup World Poll survey which found that 750 million people worldwide want to migrate to another country.

21% of these people worldwide stated they would like to migrate to the United States. That is 158 million people---equal to about 50% of the current population of the United States.

Compare that 158 million that want to come to the United States with the numbers that want to come to the next highest countries on the target list for migrants. Canada (47 million), Germany (42 million), France (36 million), Australia (36 million), United Kingdom (34 million). In fact, the United States and the countries listed above are the desired destination of almost half of all those who want to migrate from their own countries.

How many migrants want to move to China? 1%

Russia? 1%

Venezuela? 0%

North Korea? 0%

For additional perspective, these are the countries in which Gallup found that at least half of the adults wanted to permanently migrate to another country.

Let's just consider the countries above that are in the Western Hemisphere in which it is relatively easy to reach the United States compared to the rest of the world. You have to assume that most in those countries who want to migrate would prefer to live in the United States if given the opportunity.

There are the current populations of these countries.

Haiti   11 million
El Salvador   6.5 million
Dominican Republic   11 million
Honduras   9.5 million

If half of the people in these countries migrated to the United States under an open borders policy it would add almost 20 million people to the United States.

It would overwhelm the system, our resources, our infrastructure and our social order.

That is why you simply cannot take anyone seriously who argues for open borders or is stating that they want to abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

What we should get serious about is enforcing the laws that are on the books, securing our borders and taking the necessary steps to modernize our immigration laws that are generally based on the world as it was 50 years ago.

Who is the one guy who is serious about all of this and has made a determined effort to do something about it in accordance with his oath of office?

President Donald J. Trump.

So why is he made out to be the bad guy in all of this?

Consider the facts above and keep asking that question.