Donald Trump: Toots a loud horn with nativist bandwagon on immigration.
He, the forerunner in the 2016 presidential election. He, the billion dollar man. He, the man who promises to “make America great again.” He, the man who runs a campaign on boisterous statements, empty promises, slander, and mounds of funds. He, the great and powerful Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is undoubtedly a unique man who never fails to use his words to his advantage in persuading voters. He undeniably has a way of appealing to the back-of-the-mind thoughts of his audience. Over the past year trump has answered many of the worlds speculation on how crazy he can get. Throughout his campaign he has made his was by making amazing, thought provoking proposals with one goal of “making America great again.”
Specifically, his immigration reform does an eloquent job of bandwagoning voters into a nativist frame of mind.
In this reform Trump aims to abolish birthright citizenship: the principle, embedded in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, that anyone born in the United States is an American, no matter the legal status of his or her parents.
Other candidates too hold strong opinions on immigration issues in America today including Senator Ted Cruz who took stance also stating he’s always opposed birthright citizenship but without the use of such extreme of statements as used by trump. Even Bobby Jindal and Ben Carson joined in the conversation, as did Scott Walker, though he didn’t seem entirely sure. Jeb Bush stayed admirably quite clear of the touchy subject.
Abolishing birthright citizenship is certainly a plausible occurrence in our near future if Trump has his way, yet, is it the best thing for our country? Trumps nativist bandwagon definitely has people believing so.
Many political activists push back arguing that the law would be too hard to change, or that it shouldn’t be the focus of anti-immigration efforts because it isn’t the biggest problem. But, the sheer reality is that it isn’t even a problem at all.
Birthright citizenship isn’t a problem; in fact, it’s exactly what made America into America from the start. It’s no secret that “Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” to discover a beautiful mostly uninhabited land, one that (if we go back far enough) we are all immigrants too. It’s one of the things that make America great. It’s like a tradition. We are a melting pot. We are a conglomerate, a mixture. We all come from somewhere yet, we all call America home. We, as citizens of this great country all bring different things to the table, partially attributing to why America has become the power house of a country it is today. We are bound together by a civic ideal. Who is to say the definition of a true American? Trump believes he know the answer. But, how could he?
Throughout history different demographics of immigrants have been discriminated against under many administrations, eventually these tensions die down and the cycle starts up again with yet another nationality.
“Birthright citizenship is much more about us, it creates a nation formed and held together by civic values, than it is about immigrants themselves and an incentive or disincentive to come here legally or illegally,” says Doris Meissner, who ran the U.S. immigration agency under President Clinton and is now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute.
“What’s the belief system, the social cohesion that binds us?” she continues. “A commitment to democracy, participation, equal rights, opportunity, due process, government by the people — people have to be full members of the society for that to be real and flourish.”
Abolishing birthright citizenship would vastly expand and extend what Trump claims is the underlying problem: the presence of so many residents without legal right to be here. Trumps argument is that “When Mexico sends its people; they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Therefore their children or “anchor babies” should not be granted birthright citizenship in order to protect the integrity of America.
He’s proposal to deport the 11 million is, as he himself stated, “an unworkable fantasy”. That’s why most Americans should support providing some path to citizenship. To continue the tradition of a nation formed on civic values not cohesive heritage.
“With all the problems illegal immigration presents, at least it’s a one-generation phenomenon. It self-corrects with the next generation born here,” Meissner told Washington Post reporter Fred Hiatt. “A permanent underclass where disadvantage is transferred generationally is a terrible counter-force.”
As much effort as Trump puts into putting and keeping people out he leaves out one simple question to totally expunge those ideas: “why do people around the world want to come to the United States anyway?” and here’s the answer: In large part, it’s because this has, by tradition, always been a place that welcomed risk-takers, profited from their gumption and allowed them and their following generations to answer, when asked their nationality: “I am American.” And it is these Americans who truly “make America great.”
