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Walling off Common Sense
Why Trump’s border plan is such a loser.
Feb 24, 2016
"We're going to do the wall," Donald Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters in a victory speech following the South Carolina Republican primary. He was reiterating his fanciful promise to wall off the entire U.S.-Mexico border -- and force Mexico to pay for it.
Never mind whether even Trump believes there's a chance this cornerstone of his stump speech will happen. It's the thinking behind it that's majorly flawed.
This simplistic, right-wing logic turns the victims of social problems into the perpetrators. It seeks to inflict punishment even when it won't fix anything.
Take, for example, the issue of undocumented immigration.
To Trump and his supporters, the problem is the people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without papers. The solution is a wall. The result, they say, will be more jobs for Americans.
Sorry, it's not that simple.
First of all, Mexicans make up a little under half of undocumented immigrants -- a number that's declining. More Mexicans are leaving the United States than entering these days.
Second, two out of five undocumented immigrants came here legally as visitors and then overstayed their visas. A wall won't keep them out.
Finally, consider the jobs that undocumented workers do: They're farmworkers, slaughterhouse workers, dishwashers, house cleaners, landscapers, and so on.
For each low-wage, exploitative job, there are winners and losers.
The loser is often the immigrant doing backbreaking work for below minimum wage and without legally required labor protections. The winners are those who profit: employers, their shareholders, and consumers who buy cheap goods produced by low-wage workers.
If you eat food in this country -- unless you grow it yourself or you're on a first-name basis with the farmer who does -- you've personally benefited from undocumented immigrant labor.
Americans pay a lower share of our disposable income for food than any other nation. One reason for that is the exploitation of undocumented labor on farms and in slaughterhouses.
When Georgia and Alabama enacted strict anti-immigrant measures a few years ago, farmers in both states had crops rotting in their fields because there was no one to harvest them. Georgia turned to prison labor to fill the labor gap left by immigrants.
In other words, when undocumented labor was out of the picture, legal U.S. residents were unwilling to take the farm jobs that were left vacant voluntarily. Not for the working conditions and the wages being offered.
Is there a problem here? You bet. Will a wall fix it? Not a chance. What is the cause of the problem of undocumented immigrants? Hardly.
Undocumented immigrants are simply pawns in a more extensive system. We all are. Like everyone else, they're looking for jobs to raise their families and improve their lives.
Why do they come here illegally? For one thing, our immigration laws are fundamentally unrealistic. For Mexicans, coming to the United States legally can mean waiting for upwards of 20 years.
Moreover, Trump's "plan" (if you can call it that) won't address what's driving people out of Mexico itself, such as historically high rates of murder, extortion, kidnapping, and other crimes tied to drug trafficking.
Can we change our trade and drug policies in ways that make life easier in Mexico? Can we change our laws so employers become more apt to provide good jobs to immigrants and non-immigrants?
Maybe. But we can't do any of that with a wall.
The question shouldn't be "Who are the bad guys and how can we punish them?" It must be "What's the problem and how can we solve it?"
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Jill Richardson
Jill Richardson is pursuing a PhD in sociology at UW-Madison, where she studies natural resources and the environment.
borderdonald trumpfarmersfoodimmigrantsimmigrationjobslaborlatin americamexicorefugeestradetrumpismundocumented immigrants
"We're going to do the wall," Donald Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters in a victory speech following the South Carolina Republican primary. He was reiterating his fanciful promise to wall off the entire U.S.-Mexico border -- and force Mexico to pay for it.
Never mind whether even Trump believes there's a chance this cornerstone of his stump speech will happen. It's the thinking behind it that's majorly flawed.
This simplistic, right-wing logic turns the victims of social problems into the perpetrators. It seeks to inflict punishment even when it won't fix anything.
Take, for example, the issue of undocumented immigration.
To Trump and his supporters, the problem is the people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without papers. The solution is a wall. The result, they say, will be more jobs for Americans.
Sorry, it's not that simple.
First of all, Mexicans make up a little under half of undocumented immigrants -- a number that's declining. More Mexicans are leaving the United States than entering these days.
Second, two out of five undocumented immigrants came here legally as visitors and then overstayed their visas. A wall won't keep them out.
Finally, consider the jobs that undocumented workers do: They're farmworkers, slaughterhouse workers, dishwashers, house cleaners, landscapers, and so on.
For each low-wage, exploitative job, there are winners and losers.
The loser is often the immigrant doing backbreaking work for below minimum wage and without legally required labor protections. The winners are those who profit: employers, their shareholders, and consumers who buy cheap goods produced by low-wage workers.
If you eat food in this country -- unless you grow it yourself or you're on a first-name basis with the farmer who does -- you've personally benefited from undocumented immigrant labor.
Americans pay a lower share of our disposable income for food than any other nation. One reason for that is the exploitation of undocumented labor on farms and in slaughterhouses.
When Georgia and Alabama enacted strict anti-immigrant measures a few years ago, farmers in both states had crops rotting in their fields because there was no one to harvest them. Georgia turned to prison labor to fill the labor gap left by immigrants.
In other words, when undocumented labor was out of the picture, legal U.S. residents were unwilling to take the farm jobs that were left vacant voluntarily. Not for the working conditions and the wages being offered.
Is there a problem here? You bet. Will a wall fix it? Not a chance. What is the cause of the problem of undocumented immigrants? Hardly.
Undocumented immigrants are simply pawns in a more extensive system. We all are. Like everyone else, they're looking for jobs to raise their families and improve their lives.
Why do they come here illegally? For one thing, our immigration laws are fundamentally unrealistic. For Mexicans, coming to the United States legally can mean waiting for upwards of 20 years.
Moreover, Trump's "plan" (if you can call it that) won't address what's driving people out of Mexico itself, such as historically high rates of murder, extortion, kidnapping, and other crimes tied to drug trafficking.
Can we change our trade and drug policies in ways that make life easier in Mexico? Can we change our laws so employers become more apt to provide good jobs to immigrants and non-immigrants?
Maybe. But we can't do any of that with a wall.
The question shouldn't be "Who are the bad guys and how can we punish them?" It must be "What's the problem and how can we solve it?"
Jill Richardson
Jill Richardson is pursuing a PhD in sociology at UW-Madison, where she studies natural resources and the environment.
"We're going to do the wall," Donald Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters in a victory speech following the South Carolina Republican primary. He was reiterating his fanciful promise to wall off the entire U.S.-Mexico border -- and force Mexico to pay for it.
Never mind whether even Trump believes there's a chance this cornerstone of his stump speech will happen. It's the thinking behind it that's majorly flawed.
This simplistic, right-wing logic turns the victims of social problems into the perpetrators. It seeks to inflict punishment even when it won't fix anything.
Take, for example, the issue of undocumented immigration.
To Trump and his supporters, the problem is the people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without papers. The solution is a wall. The result, they say, will be more jobs for Americans.
Sorry, it's not that simple.
First of all, Mexicans make up a little under half of undocumented immigrants -- a number that's declining. More Mexicans are leaving the United States than entering these days.
Second, two out of five undocumented immigrants came here legally as visitors and then overstayed their visas. A wall won't keep them out.
Finally, consider the jobs that undocumented workers do: They're farmworkers, slaughterhouse workers, dishwashers, house cleaners, landscapers, and so on.
For each low-wage, exploitative job, there are winners and losers.
The loser is often the immigrant doing backbreaking work for below minimum wage and without legally required labor protections. The winners are those who profit: employers, their shareholders, and consumers who buy cheap goods produced by low-wage workers.
If you eat food in this country -- unless you grow it yourself or you're on a first-name basis with the farmer who does -- you've personally benefited from undocumented immigrant labor.
Americans pay a lower share of our disposable income for food than any other nation. One reason for that is the exploitation of undocumented labor on farms and in slaughterhouses.
When Georgia and Alabama enacted strict anti-immigrant measures a few years ago, farmers in both states had crops rotting in their fields because there was no one to harvest them. Georgia turned to prison labor to fill the labor gap left by immigrants.
In other words, when undocumented labor was out of the picture, legal U.S. residents were unwilling to take the farm jobs that were left vacant voluntarily. Not for the working conditions and the wages being offered.
Is there a problem here? You bet. Will a wall fix it? Not a chance. What is the cause of the problem of undocumented immigrants? Hardly.
Undocumented immigrants are simply pawns in a more extensive system. We all are. Like everyone else, they're looking for jobs to raise their families and improve their lives.
Why do they come here illegally? For one thing, our immigration laws are fundamentally unrealistic. For Mexicans, coming to the United States legally can mean waiting for upwards of 20 years.
Moreover, Trump's "plan" (if you can call it that) won't address what's driving people out of Mexico itself, such as historically high rates of murder, extortion, kidnapping, and other crimes tied to drug trafficking.
Can we change our trade and drug policies in ways that make life easier in Mexico? Can we change our laws so employers become more apt to provide good jobs to immigrants and non-immigrants?
Maybe. But we can't do any of that with a wall.
The question shouldn't be "Who are the bad guys and how can we punish them?" It must be "What's the problem and how can we solve it?"
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