Country’s future is brighter with immigrants
In the court of public opinion, we would find unanimity that this country must address issues occurring at the U.S.-Mexico border. Finding solutions, however, requires good faith efforts to search for truth and set aside politics while establishing policies.
Listening to my friends who support former President Donald Trump, I hear them saying, “They’re bringing drugs, bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Even to this day, they continue to quote Trump. The most repeated refrain when discussing the border problem regards stopping the Mexican smugglers from bringing dope into the U.S., especially fentanyl. Without question, this problem must be solved. But immigrants trying to cross into our country are not causing the problem.
If Trump and his political supporters would read reports from U.S. border officials and the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they would gain an accurate understanding. The smuggling is in the hands of highly sophisticated criminals who use Americans and Mexicans as “mules” in both countries to carry this nefarious but valuable product across the border.
Today, more than 90% of fentanyl comes through official border crossings in the hands of Americans and Mexicans with dual residencies.
Fentanyl is transported in semitrucks, cars or inside the bodies of Americans who willingly assist in the trade to earn $500. And the problem is driven by America’s addiction. Trump and House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson reject the official findings and insist migrants are causing the fentanyl problem. They are easy, convenient targets of blame, after all.
The Senate has worked hard but fruitlessly to provide a compromise. What happened? Trump told Johnson to waylay any viable solutions because he needs to make the U.S.-Mexican border his number one issue when he debates President Joe Biden during the 2024 election. It’s a matter of politics as usual, instead of problem-solving. Johnson demands suppression of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, eliminating equal protections for those born or naturalized in the United States. Johnson and Trump’s intentions is to deny citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrant parents.
To get the border problem under control, our elected representatives must work at passing legislation that addresses the issues instead of jockeying for political power. So how about these long-term solutions?
Create and communicate messages through our Latin American embassies that override the misinformation of “coyotes” who collect as much as $15,000 to guide a family to the edge of the U.S. border. Coyote trade amounts to millions of dollars every year, and many are aligned with cartels and other criminal organizations. The U.S. government could increase and strengthen the Voice of America broadcast network to bring awareness to this issue in these countries.
How about focusing on the economic issues of these third-world home countries? I can hear Johnson, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Trump claiming, “There is corruption in the governments of these several countries so why waste tax dollars on correcting their problems?” The implication is that it’s more politically beneficial to blame the Democrats than to work at building stability. Blame is easy, but solving serious issues requires hard work, intelligence, and maturity.
Republicans are pushing the idea that Democrats want an open border so they can have cheap labor to cut the grass and clean their houses. I think they are confusing Democrats with Trump. In 2019, the former president was found employing undocumented workers at his Bedminster Country Club for as little as $4 an hour to clean house, make beds, landscape, and provide maintenance. Ironically, this was simultaneous with Trump’s directive for ICE to round up and deport undocumented immigrants.
Looking down the road, policymakers must acknowledge that immigration is critical to providing strong replacements to our aging labor market and falling birth rates. Economists predict immigration would add billions of dollars to the U.S. economy annually. In addition, their labor bolsters the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Trump and the far right cannot accept that a bright, rich future can be shared with immigrants.