Donald Trump and the Politics of Immigration
As a result of increased immigration into the United States, President Donald Trump came up with a policy that aimed at stopping immigration. The main idea of the policy was to minimize the number of legalized immigrants that are allowed to enter and stay in the United States. It was Trump’s main agenda to stop legal and illegal immigration before being elected as the President of the United States of America. In reaction to Trump’s plan towards immigration, the Democrats were highly critical about the policy adopted by Trump’s administration to stop immigration. This paper seeks to discuss the issues presented in President Donald Trump’s policy to stop immigration, what was the aim at the time, and its effects on African Americans and other races.
One of the issues presented at the time was that the American borders were insecure, and they needed protection. The immigration policy aimed to safeguard the county’s borders from uncontrolled immigration, an influx of criminals, and dangerous drugs. A wall was proposed to be built in the border between the United States and Mexico as a way of preventing illegal immigrants into the States (Burkett and Hayes, p. 95 -125). Trump also urged Mexico to The wall is being built up to date.
By enhancing immigration policies, President Trump claimed that he wanted to save American lives. He argued that as a result of the influx of immigrants into the United States, the criminals, and lethal drugs also entered into the country. By reducing the rate of immigration into the country, Trump argued that it was one of the best ways of reducing crimes in the country. According to him, the United States is a country of law-abiding citizens and not criminals.
President Donald Trump advocated for an immigration system based on merit to protect American workers and serve the national interest. According to Trump, the integrity in the immigration system of the country can be restored by replacing the random system of legal immigration with one based on skill and merit. Also, to protect the election of the country, Trump is advocating for voter identity legislation (Newman, Shah, and Collingwood, p. 122-134). In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton defeated Trump with nearly 2.9 million votes, although Trump won with Electoral College vote. Trump’s main argument was that the votes Clinton received were as a result of influx immigration into the country. Trump, therefore, vowed to stop illegal and legal immigration into the country and also took more steps to be deporting illegal immigrants.
Although Trump’s policy of immigration has its benefits, it has some adverse effects on African Americans and other races living in the United States. Some strategies, like identity legislation, are denying them their rights to vote in the ballot box (Towler and Parker, p. 219-253). In history, the African Americans rallied behind the federal government to protect them when states and other local governments would no offer them protection. Since the federal government, under the tutelage of President Donald Trump, is against them, they have nowhere to hide.
Although 2020 is an election year, President Donald Trump has not shown any signs of backtracking on his stand against immigration. The republicans rally behind Donald Trump while the Democrats are still in limbo. A lot of people in the country feel that President Trump will be re-elected into office during the national; election due to the failed impeachment trial. Due to the failed impeachment trial, the Democrats were portrayed as corrupt people.
In conclusion, this paper has examined the issues presented in President Trump’s idea of how to stop immigration, what was the aim at the time, and its effects on African Americans and other races. One of the main ideas was to safeguard the United States borders from illegal intruders who are criminals and deal with drugs. The policy aims is to reduce the number of immigrants into the country. Immigration policy adopted by President Trump affects African Americans negatively in many ways.