El Chapo y Senor Trump
Billionaire. Accomplished Businessman. Family Man.
These are a few terms that could describe Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Cut Throat. Angry. Brash. Non-apologetic.
These are just a few terms that could be used to describe presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In the wake of Trump’s recent outbursts regarding illegal aliens and the Mexican people it was almost like he was daring Guzman to escape from prison, if nothing else to make him back-pedal publicly. Yes, Guzman is a drug dealer. Yes, the majority of his wares are peddled to American citizens, but even he must draw the line when all the Mexican people who come to America are being referred to as a disease and the worst part of their homeland.
Maybe Trump did not understand that by illuminating the illegal drug trade, he was illuminating a counter culture that had been overshadowed by the global war on terror. Maybe he didn’t think far enough ahead to believe that a ruthless drug dealer, who is revered by the people in his hometown and state, would possibly respond to a negative honor challenge aimed directly at his large in-group by issuing a rumored $100 million dollar green light for Trumps death. The bounty may not be real, but is it really worth Trump taking a chance? Guzman is a man who eluded arguably the world’s most robust drug enforcement agency, broke out of two maximum-security prisons, and who has a business network throughout the world. Is it too hard to fathom that he could be able to have one eccentric, loud-mouth businessman put to rest?
Who knows, maybe Trump has a foreign policy in his back pocket that will include massive amounts of federal dollars to stave off the flow of illegal immigrants and all the problems they bring with them by building a wall that would make the border between Israel and Palestine look like the Fast Pass at Disneyland to Star Tours. Yes, illegal immigrants bring loads of problems with them. Problems like cheap, dependable labor. You know, the type of labor that was used to build American cities, the cross continental railroad, and to keep the price of cherries at $1.99 a pound. Cheap labor like the kind that was used in Alabama and Georgia, where in 2011 new state laws made the labor force leave by choice or force. With the passing of those laws the agricultural industries suffered dramatically as farmers looked to find Americans who would do the backbreaking labor for the low but livable wages paid in the agricultural industry. HBO tele-journalism show VICE documented this issue in their episode “Sweet Home Alabama” where Alabama farmers found they could not depend on the legal American-born citizens to work the farms and had to turn to contracting the services of those in prison for a labor force. Even then, the prisoners refused to do the work as directed and whole fields had to be replanted. Many journalists and economists believe that without immigrants, even the illegal ones, our economy would crumble to the brink of collapse. Just in the agricultural industry the Wall Street Journal in 2014 estimated that half of the 1.1 million hired farm hands were undocumented. Imagine if half your work force up and left one day. Could you replace them with qualified applicants willing to do the grunt work your industry demands?
But we shouldn’t take Trump seriously right? He is just an eccentric billionaire who has pulled this publicity stunt before. Correct, but this time he is neck and neck in the polls with Jeb Bush for the Republican nod. Some will say that he is only rallying the voice of Americans who have not had a voice to speak for them. To that I will say those people are correct and he is doing just that. He is rallying the voices of legal Latinos and legal families of immigrants to vote in the next election. His actions may actually push the Latino vote away from Hillary Clinton and towards Jeb Bush - whose wife was born, raised, and lived in Mexico until they were married in 1971. Or maybe Trump is doing exactly what he wants by “inadvertently” rallying the Latino vote, and his actions can help catapult a Republican into the White House past a very strong Democrat opponent. Trump, like his new friend El Chapo Guzman, is a cunning and calculated businessman who realizes the game he is playing is chess, not checkers. Both understand not only the power of what is said, but allow their actions to speak for them. Trump didn’t get to where he is by not being a man of action, and Guzman’s actions propelled him to the upper echelon of his industry. Hopefully for Trump, Guzman will come to the realization that this is just American politics Trump is playing and that he does not really hold these deep-seated beliefs. If not, The Don may have to look over his shoulder for a long time.
Will America continue to take Trump serious, and will we find Guzman on a beach with his wife and kids again? In the end, only time will tell us what will happen. In the mean time, illegal immigrants will continue to come into this country for many reasons. Some will come for illegal reasons, validating Trump’s beliefs and those of a segment of the far right. More will arguably come for the same reasons legal and illegal immigrants have come to America since its inception: for a safe life, for liberty from tyranny, and for the pursuit of happiness & the American dream. Not many people in America today can trace all their lineage back to, well, America. Almost all of us come from people that immigrated from somewhere, and who had a real good reason to leave the homes they knew. The question for Trump though, in a land of immigrants, is Got Fear?
This article was brought to you by the homeland security professionals of Homeland InSecurity.
“Got Fear?”
To read more from Homeland inSecurity:
