Citizen Vs Immigrants: A Trump Binary In Conflict With America's Foundations

♓In mid-January, U.S. President Donald Trump started his highly anticipated second term in office by signing an executive order that declared a national emergency at the country’s southern border to protect America’s sovereignty from the criminal aliens invading the country. 

✃The national emergency is unlike the fictional dystopian threat depicted in big-budget Hollywood movies, which have produced several jarring versions of the out-of-space invasions in the doomsday/apocalyptic genre. The aliens, whose entry Trump has vowed to stop, are far off from the terrifying images conjured in the movies of the monstrous extraterrestrials who want to colonise Earth and destroy humanity. 

꧋They are people from outside the U.S., many of whom are desperate, persecuted, and helpless women and children, illegally entering the U.S. borders.

ꦬIn a wide-sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, Trump announced several restrictions, including sending armed troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, mass deportation of unauthorised immigrants to their original countries, and ending birthright citizenship. 

🔥The measures attack the very foundations of America, whose identity as the land of immigrants is created by the descendants of immigrants, including Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, and others.

🐎The attempts to tighten the screws on the coveted American citizenship by amending the Constitution and overhauling the refugee policy reinforces Trump’s binary political approach, which has divided Americans and flustered the rest of the world. After changing federal laws to enforce gender binaries, which will recognise only male and female genders, Trump introduced new rules to limit the citizenship rights of the children of unauthorised immigrants or anyone without a valid visa. 

ꩵThe order to repeal birthright citizenship was met with stiff opposition, and its implementation is currently paused by a federal judge. It has, however, opened a dangerous political discourse, adding heft to the right-wing and conservative positions on whether migrants or outsiders can ever be citizens. 

⛦The birthright citizenship is considered to be among the greatest accomplishments of America’s founding fathers. Passed in 1866, after the abolishment of slavery, the law guaranteed citizenship to formerly enslaved Black residents who were not considered citizens of the state. Anyone born on American soil was given the right to be an American citizen, regardless of their parent's legal status. The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to all children born in the U.S., even to undocumented parents or those without valid visas. 

🧸Calling Trump’s move illegal, Harvard Law School Professor Gerald Neuman, in an interview with the journal Harvard Law Today, explained that the birthright provision in the constitution does away with the “hereditary caste of people who are not citizens.” In America, citizenship is determined at birth “by virtue of where you’re born, rather than by who your parents are.” 

🍬For immigrants, the ideas of the great American dream are fuelled by the very notions of freedom and civil liberty enshrined in the Constitution. The vast U.S. economy, valued at USD 29.4 trillion, produces hundreds of work opportunities promising upward mobility and economic prosperity. The economy drives immigration, and immigration in turn boosts job growth and prosperity. 

The U.S. has the highest immigration rate and is home to nearly one-fifth of the world's migrants. A large part of this immigration is legal, with migrants arriving with valid visas from the authorised entry points. However, since 2018, there has been a surge in the number of illegal migrants, which includes foreign nationals attempting to cross into the U.S. borders illegally and those migrants whose requests for asylum were deemed inadmissible. The numbers exploded after the COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered an economic collapse in several Central American countries, causing health crises, food insecurity, and high poverty.

๊Under President Joe Biden’s tenure, between 2021 and 2024, the U.S. witnessed a record-breaking 8.72 million entries at the southern border. The US Department of Homeland Security estimated that 11 million people were living illegally as of 2022. 

ꦛThe majority of these illegal immigrants belonged to just six countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, and Colombia. Mexico and the rest of the Central American countries account for over 67 per cent of the unauthorised population. 

⛎Historically, Latin American immigrants, particularly the Mexicans, came to the U.S. as economic migrants in search of a better life. America’s land border with Mexico makes it an obvious choice for Mexicans looking to escape the worsening poverty and bleak economic growth, marred by armed conflicts, drug cartels, and political unrest. 

ꦿThe roughly 2000 km long shared border between the two countries was primarily used to cross over into the U.S. undetected. Nearly half of the border length is manned by various types of fencing and walls built during Trump’s first term. 

𒉰Entering the U.S. without valid paperwork has since become tougher and dangerous. Most immigrants aiming to seek asylum aim to reach the southern U.S. border. The journey to reach here from the transit countries of Colombia or Panama in Latin America requires crossing several border points from where they risk detention or deportation. 

𓃲The Darién Gap bordering Panama and Colombia is among the most used and dangerous crossing points. The forested and mountainous region which receives heavy rainfall is infested with wildlife, smugglers, and goons; the ten-day trek through the Darien Gap jungle is full of risks. Yet, last year over 300,000 migrants, more than half of whom were women, children, and unaccompanied minors, trekked the route to enter Panama.  

🍸The countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, known as the Northern Triangle is one of the poorest in the world. In recent years, the region has been left economically strained due to climate change, political unrest, and a growing economic crisis leading to severe food insecurity. The collapse of Venezuela’s economy under the authoritarian rule of President Nicolás Maduro has pushed millions to flee hyperinflation, poverty, and food insecurity. In Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, and Ecuador too, inflation, political repression, weak governance, poverty, drug war, gang violence, organised crime, and adverse climate have disproportionately affected large parts of populations, mostly women and children.

𒈔Trump’s harsh measures to stop illegal immigrants from entering the U.S. are hardly a deterrent to limiting the migration flow. Ending birthright citizenship, many experts have argued, is illegal and unconstitutional and does not guarantee the end of immigration. Immigration is the driving force of the American economy, and many economists feel immigration is good for the economy as it boosts the labour force and drives economic growth. Boston University economist Tarek Hassan’s studies have shown immigrants help fuel local economies by sparking innovation and driving up wages. 

🍸The American economy has prospered and thrived on the vast labour force of immigrants, diversity, freedom, and inclusion. Trump’s populist politics of America First, with a hardline approach to immigration by closing borders and limiting citizenship, might be lauded temporarily by conservatives. But experts argue it is unlikely to sustain in the long run with a rapidly ageing population and shrinking workforce in the global north.