Democrats need to Fix Immigration
Because Democrats (including me) discounted Immigration as an issue we now have a President whose first priority is more tax cuts for the wealthy (like him) that will further blow up our National Debt and further undermine the value of the dollar.
Trump also wants to impose tariffs that every competent economists says will increase consumer prices, rekindling smoldering inflation, and perhaps spark retaliatory tarriffs by other countries like the 1931 Tarifs Republicans enacted that drove the world into the Great Depression.
He has said he will replace the dollar with the crypto assets he and his fellow billionaires have been hoarding, enriching themselves and impoverishing everyone who relied on money in the bank, treasury assets or money markets for their savings.
Perhaps worst of all he may end Democracy as we know it. But for the bravery and commitment to Democracy of Mike Pence Trump might have overturned the results of the 2020 election. He now has 4 years to put into place what he needs to become President for life, with a Republican Congress to help him, and Vice President who will do his biding no matter how illegal.
Although we are not usually aware of it we all encounter folks in this country illegally. They are just people. Since even if they are illegal they aren’t going to take my job I have the luxury of indulging in feeling christian charity, in wanting to treat them as people trying to make their way in the world. They mow our lawns, haul away our trash — they do all sorts of labor so we don’t have to. I assumed most voters would feel like I do, that Trump was just bullying people with no voice to create a straw man to be angry about. I assumned they would not believe Trump if they were reminded that he went out of this way to do nothing constructive about immigration in his first term. I scattered my opinion about on Social Media.
But, it turns out in many places a majority of Latino’s and other minority populations still voted for Trump. I couldn’t believe that at first, but it forced me to think about why. I realized they probably feel like I feel when someone cuts in front of me in line, or cheats on their taxes (like Trump). Legal immigrants (as well as low income citizens from all enthnic groups) who have obeyed the rules and jumped through all the immigration hoops have do deal with illegal immigrants who ignored the rules and are competing with them for jobs, for affordable housing, for finding ways to make life better for them and their families.
Impacts I am immune to and may unknowingly benefit from slightly from the competition in the service marketplace.
The first inkling I had that maybe I was wrong in dismissing immigration occurred week or so ago when Court overturned a Biden decision made back in June that I was completely unaware of that an illegal who married a legal immigrant did not have to leave the country and reenter. Although being married to a citizen confers citizenship, if a non-citizen marrys a citizen, the non-citizen needs to leave the country and reenter through the immigration process. Biden’s action contradicted the law as enacted by Congress. Even to me it did not seem wise to reward illegal behavior, particularly as I recall reports over the years of instances where non-citizens become citizens by marriage then part ways from their spouse shortly thereafter — a short cut to citizenship. Not evil, but definetely not playing by the rules. In retrospect Biden’s policy played right into Trumps hands.
The election has turned my thinking on immigration on its head. It’s been apparent for years our sparsely populated 2000 mile border is a temptation for folks not happy in their current situation. It has sparked an entire industry in Mexico of extracting money to smuggle people across the border. Militarizing the border makes some sense actually. We have 1.3 million active duty serviceman in the US. About 170,000 stationed outside the country leaving well over a million active duty military at bases in this country engaged in readiness and training. Not all busy work but from my own recollections from my Army days, much that could easily be set aside for a new mission. If we deployed 100,000 active duty soldiers to secure the border we would still have over a million active duty military personal in the country, and not have an immigration problem for Republican’s to exploit.
Trump ran on Immigration in 2016 and won. He had a Republican Congress, he had the opportunity to fix the problem. Republicans introduced an immigration bill with great fanfare to “fix” immigration law, but after the initial PR fanfare the Republican Congress quietly let it die to save the issue for future elections. Instead Trump did a lot of headline grabbing things that were illegal under existing law, and raged about how Democrats and the deep state were the problem. So the issue survived to fuel more campaigns. This last year the House Republicans wrote an immigration bill to maintain the pretense they wanted to solve the problem. The Democrats surprised them by not objecting. But Trump told them to drop it, which they did because if they solve the problem they lose the issue.
What if Trump follows the same course — pretend but be careful not to actually solve the problem? Democrats need to take control of the issue, even preempt Trump’s plan to militarize the border, by introducing a bill themselves and pushing it. Democrats need to force Congress to fix the issue or publicly refuse. In the process Democrats could also propose improvements in the process, in particular finding a way to deal with those who are fleeing their home countries to escape persecution or gang violance — and pointing out Immigration control requires money that the Trump tax cuts will make difficult to find.
Because if Democrats sit back a let Trump control the situation immigration becomes a fight that sucks up all the media attention, while the fights that do effect many of us — avoiding another massive economic downturn, or having the dollar fall from its priviliged status as the worlds reference currency will get lost.
In this campaign Trump regularly told voters that if they vote for him in this election they won’t ever have to again. That could mean he won’t be running again — hard to imagine given his love for rambling talks to big crowds. The 22nd Amendment does prohibit a second term, but the law never seems to stop Trump’s ambition.
But even if Trump steps down Republicans could in the next 4 years implement the Project 2025 vision of creating a Democracy where only the “right people” get to vote, and government is entitled to control peoples life choices. A fake Democracy where Republicans control who votes and what votes get counted. Where the Federal government controls abortion access, public school agendas, what we can have on our library shelves. We have already seen this happening at the State level in Red States. If Trump doesn’t run the presumptive nominee would be JD Vance has already demonstrated he is enamored of Project 2025 and that factual reality and respect for peoples life choices are irrelevant to his narratives.
Democrats need to make fixing immigration a top priority. They need to own it, to force the Republican’s hand, to gain credability to battle Republicans on reducing the National debt, increasing economics fairness, or getting government out of peoples personal live.
Image source —
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/12/politics/border-wall-cnnphotos/