The unthinkable has happened, Donald Trump has been re-elected as President. He rode a wave of populism, racism, misogyny, bigotry and hate. He didn’t just make campaign promises, he made threats. And people elected him anyway.
One of those threats was to deport tens of millions of illegal immigrants. And you don’t need to look any further than his cabinet picks to know that he intends to make good on those threats. Make no mistake, these deportations will go far beyond “criminal” aliens. They will round up as many – brown – migrants as they can. The DACA program will be terminated, and you will likely see visas canceled and bans on immigration from what Trump and other Republicans refer to as “garbage” countries.
No one should be surprised by the Donald Trump they got, because it is the Donald Trump they voted for. Latinos, Muslims, Arabs, and other non-white American’s who voted for Trump will be on the receiving end of his hate.
Trump will face challenges, not just legal challenges in the courts, and protests in the streets, but also challenges in Congress. He has to get money and resources to carry out deportations on this scale. Democrats will of course oppose him. MAGA sycophants from deep red states will fall in line. But there may be some Republicans from blue or purple states that may resist. Even when he declares a national emergency and engages the military there may be generals who push back.
Regardless of the size and scale of the deportations, or how many challenges they face or how long it takes to be implemented, you can be sure that this is coming. But no matter how many people are deported, put in prison or in camps, or how many miles of border wall are constructed, it will never stop illegal immigration. The only way to stop illegal immigration is to put American’s in prison.
Regardless of any of the myriad of reasons that anyone claims as the basis for their coming to America, there is one common thread, one thing they all want, a job. The primary draw for illegal immigrants is economics. The only real way to stop illegal immigration is to take away this lure. It is a crime to work in the U.S. if you are not a citizen or do not have a federal work authorization number. So all we have to do is just not employ illegal aliens. This is the 21st century, we have technology that can do this. Sounds simple enough, right? It would be except for unscrupulous American’s.
The root of all evil, next to religion, is money. American’s just put their wallets ahead of their morals by re-electing Donald Trump. And every day American’s put their own financial interests ahead of their morals and the law. That is because trafficking in illegal aliens, which includes employing them, is a lucrative business.
Take the case of a Texas construction firm who had some 40% of their workforce who were illegal aliens. They showed ICE records that they had fired all the undocumented workers, while at the same time conspired with a local staffing firm to hire those same illegal workers and put them back on their construction sites. Criminal prosecutions with prison time for hiring undocumented workers are rare, typically these cases end just with financial settlements. But these fines aren’t enough to stop American’s from hiring undocumented workers.
In March of last year Republicans in the House introduced the ‘Secure the Border’ act which would mandate the use of E-Verify nationwide. It strangely received bi-partisan push back. Surprisingly, a group of Republicans, the party which normally rails against illegal immigrants as criminals and ‘poisoning the blood of America,’ pushed back against this legislation on the grounds that enforcing federal immigration laws could adversely impact the agriculture industry in their states.
The way to stop illegal immigration is to disincentivize migrants from wanting to come here. You do that by taking away the jobs they seek. But so long as there are unscrupulous business owners and managers who are willing to hire undocumented workers, there will still be illegal immigration. Stopping illegal immigration will require stiffer penalties, including increasing fines and prison time for those American’s who hire undocumented workers.
Think of it in terms of drug trafficking. American employers are offering something that migrants can’t resist, jobs. The Trump plan to deport tens of millions of illegal aliens, most of whom are brown, demonizes and punishes the “drug user” instead of the “drug dealer.” It gives Republicans what they want, someone to be the boogeyman. And a campaign issue they can fund raise off of.
In the end, we have the ability to fix this problem. What is yet to be seen is if we have the will.