Fortunately, Trump didn’t keep his promises on immigration
President Donald Trump did not build a wall, and Mexico did not pay for it.
His immigration policies, though, have hurt the economy and put the nation’s prosperity at risk.
Trump made immigration the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, using bigotry and exaggeration to fire up his supporters. Immigrants, though, are a critical part of the workforce.
Out of the 40 million immigrants living in the United States, only 10.5 million are not authorized to work here, according to Pew Research, a data collection and analysis organization. The number has dropped steadily since the Great Recession of 2008, as single Mexican men voluntarily returned home, and families from Central America have become most of the unauthorized border-crossers.
Despite adding only 5 miles of new wall, Customs and Border Patrol reports more than doubling border apprehensions to 851,000 people, the highest numbers in 12 years. But Trump has not kept his promise of more deportations.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested only 143,000 people in fiscal year 2019, half of what the agency apprehended in 2009. President Barrack Obama’s ICE arrested and deported more than twice as many people during his first term in office.
Trump also failed to require businesses to use E-Verify to identify workers who use forged documents, which are readily available from China via the internet. In February, Trump dropped the mandatory use of E-Verify from his budget proposal after coming under pressure from the business community.
The dirty truth is that the U.S. cannot afford to lose the 9 million workers who are here without the proper paperwork. Industries such as construction and hospitality rely on immigrant labor and profit from paying them lower wages than Americans would demand.
Hardliners in the Trump
administration, such as political adviser Stephen Miller, have had far greater success slashing legal immigration. The White House has made it more difficult for refugees to enter the country or for employers to import skilled workers.
Trump suspended refugee settlement immediately after taking office in 2017 and then toughened the standards for obtaining refugee status and obtaining the background checks. The number of refugees entering the country dropped from 97,000 in 2016 to 23,000 last year.
The administration’s Remain in Mexico policy has stopped people fleeing violence in Central America from entering the country while their sanctuary case is adjudicated, creating refugee camps in northern Mexico. Federal judges are still sorting through the inhumanity of Trump’s child separation program that put kids in cages.
Trump is also still aiming to throw out immigrants who entered the country as kids, and now, as adults, rely on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The Trump administration wants to end the program and deport 650,000 workers from the only country they’ve ever known.
Many of the president’s defenders like to say that he does not oppose all immigration, only illegal immigration. But Trump has made it much harder for people to come here legally and contribute to our economy.
The administration is
rejecting visas for highly skilled professionals at triple the rate of previous administrations, according to the National Foundation for American Policy, a Washington think tank.
Employers have also found it more challenging to get visas for low-wage agricultural workers.
Trump has said the policy would boost American employment, but employers say that’s not happening
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many are unemployed, Silicon Valley cannot find enough people with the programming skills they need. And few Americans are flocking to strawberry fields or shrimp boats where the days are long and the work back-breaking.
The truth is we need immigrants; they are critical to America’s long-term prosperity. In Europe and Japan, where populations are shrinking, economic growth is minimal. The U.S. population is growing only through immigration, which keeps our economy vibrant, innovative and growing.
In a new book, journalist and author Matthew Yglesias recommends the U.S. radically expand immigration to prevent China and India from becoming the world’s next superpowers. In “One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger,” the co-founder of the Vox news site explains that the U.S. has far fewer people per square mile than most countries and has room to grow.
“Immigrants of virtually all stripes help make native-born Americans richer, make our retirement programs more sustainable, and offer the fuel for innovation that can help the country grow,” Yglesias wrote. “The solution to the illegal immigration crisis is to let more people come legally, not tie ourselves into knots trying to stop the flow.”
Trump has failed to keep his promises on immigration, and for that, we should be grateful. We need every pair of hands willing to help build this country.