Mr. Trump’s four pillars of immigration reform
On Tuesday, January 30, 2018, President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address. I closely watched his speech particularly on immigration reform. With another possible government shutdown nearing the February 8 deadline, immigration will once again be on the negotiating table as both parties would have to decide on what to do primarily with “Dreamers”, among other immigration related issues. Thus, Mr. Trump’s SOTU speech became all the more important as it gives an insight on which way he intends to go with this protracted issue.
Mr. Trump outlined his four pillars of immigration reform. First, he is offering a path to citizenship to nearly 1.8 million Dreamers provided they meet work, education requirements, and good moral character. Second, securing the border by building a wall on the southern border and hiring more border patrol officers. Third is by ending the visa lottery system which was primarily aimed at immigrants from underrepresented countries and replacing it with merit-based immigration system. And lastly, he is seeking to end what he terms as “chain migration” by limiting family sponsorships to only spouses and minor children.
And for good measure, Mr. Trump added, “In recent weeks, two terrorist attacks in New York were made possible by the visa lottery and chain migration. In the age of terrorism, these programs present risks we can no longer afford.” I do not see the necessity of this comment except to foment fear and prejudice against immigrants. Hasn’t there been any mass murders committed by Americans as well? Did Mr. Trump conveniently forget the October 1 Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 people and injured another 851? Or the Sandy Hook massacre of 20 innocent schoolchildren? Or the mass shootings that have become all too regular occurrences?
These proposals are quite a misleading, if not a disingenuous inducement on the part of the administration. By promising possible citizenship to the Dreamers, Mr. Trump knows the Democrats cannot refuse to take this offer. However, the administration has made it clear that this pledge is only good if the rest of his proposals are also agreed upon -specifically ending family reunification, instituting meritbased system, and border wall funding. This leaves Democrats in a bind. Giving legal status to Dreamers is one that has bipartisan support and most polls say that the general public is in favor of it. However, the main target really here is ending the family reunification policy by limiting petitions as Mr. Trump clearly expressed, only to spouses and minor children. Thus, if Mr. Trump would have his way, there will be no more sponsorships by a greencard holder for his adult, unmarried children and for a US citizen to petition for his parent, adult and unmarried children, adult and married children, and brothers and sisters. Which makes us ask what if a greencard holder or US citizen is unmarried and has no children, but has parents and siblings back home? Or a divorcee or single parent with adult children? Isn’t this a discriminatory policy based on civil status? I do not think this is even constitutional.
While I agree on granting citizenship to Dreamers, increasing border security, making some changes on the visa lottery system, and even instituting a form of merit-based immigration, however, ending family reunification should not be one of them. For the Democrats, this is a non-starter and even Republicans are not buying this idea. Let’s see how this issue unfolds in the near future.