What is Trump’s Immigration Plan?

This past Thursday, Trump’s administration proposed a framework for a possible immigration policy that would address the border wall, DACA, family based migration and the process of visa sponsorship.

But what exactly does the proposed plan entail?

Although many media outlets are framing Trump’s plan as a step in the right direction, there are many problematic policies that won’t bode well for liberals or immigration advocates.

Gambling DACA for Border Wall Funding

 

image via pixabay

In exchange for a 25 billion dollar funding for a border wall (one of Trump’s election promises), the administration is reportedly open to exacting a path towards citizenship for about 1.8 million immigrants including those who were eligible for DACA but did not apply.

 

The process of such an undertaking has no specifics as of yet, but if it looks similar to the go back to your country and wait ten years to apply then no steps have been taken on part of the administration, regardless of how others decide to spin it.

It seems clear that DACA’s situation is being used as a political ploy against Democrats to have them compromise on some kind of border wall funding.

With thousands of lives on the edge of losing DACA protection in early March, the move on the administration’s part relies on getting Democrats to agree quickly or risk the deportation of DACA recipients.

Asking for a permanent solution to the end of the DACA program and then adding a list of “non-negotiable additions” is disturbing to say the least.

One Democrat compared their proposal to a “white supremacist wish list.”

The Falseness of the “Exceptional Immigrant”

 

image via pixabay

Including the new restrictions on immigration programs and border wall funding, an immigration deal in favour of DACA recipients is hard to envision as plausible.
And another problem? The plan does not address immigrants who were either too young or too old for the DACA program.

 

The plan also limits who is able to receive a path towards citizenship. Limiting family visas to spouses and children would mean the elimination of other types of visas. This will be difficult to propose since many see family reunification as a major reason for a comprehensive immigration system.

Another factor of the deal includes a “merit-based” visa lottery. This was proposed from a desire to replace the diversity visa lottery that is currently in place. As to how it functions currently, the diversity visa is a system that invites $50,000 individuals to apply for citizenship from countries that do not have a lot of immigration into the states.

What is problematic about the proposed “merit” based program is how little is specified in it and whether race will be considered a factor in light of Trump’s remarks. Not much can be said until more details of this program are specified to Congress.

What to Do Looking Forward

 

image via pixabay

With such major issues in the proposed framework and considering what it will take for a bill to pass both a liberal senate and a republican majority in the house, it remains unforeseen whether any kind of immigration deal will be met by the March 5th deadline.

 

Whether advocates will settle for anything less than comprehensive is unlikely. So far, vocal opposition has been swift.

According to officials, the proposal will be officially introduced to Congress the week of February 5, a few days before February 8, the day the temporary spending bill expires.

The most pragmatic course of action is to ensure your representative does not support any kind of border wall funding, especially since the most extreme immigration policies are more likely to pitter out in the Senate if such a framework in its entirety is proposed.

Taking on this line of action would represent the determination on part of immigration advocates but also signal that the future of DACA recipients will not come at the cost of other immigrants that this country deems “unfit” to be here.

In particular, the previously proposed border wall security measures by Republicans disproportionally affect Central American immigrants who are fleeing drug wars, gang violence, or other imperial effects of foreign policy.

While the Senate Minority leader, Chuck Schumer, reportedly already has shown opposition to Trump’s plan, more can be done if everyone resists Trump’s plan locally.

For the most part, the administration’s tone deaf attitude towards immigrants has neither a sense of the repercussions an immigration crackdown would have on this country nor a true value for immigrant lives. Resistance too, will be swift.

 

Dear Future Readers

There are many reasons why I started this blog. First and foremost, it was something I wanted to do for some time now. To invest my time and energy into something that others can enjoy was important to me but there were other reasons that incited me to act on this urge.

The government recently started up again after a 3 day shutdown because congress couldn’t agree on a spending bill and many democrats were hoping to enact a deal in response to the suspension of the DACA program. However, the Democratic Party was too split on the matter, and they agreed to keep the government open till February 8th as long as Republicans were willing to work towards an immigration solution.

Of course, we can’t talk about immigration policy without mentioning the people at the forefront of such a movement. Activists who have perpetually supported a clean immigration policy acted in support of their beliefs through non-violent actions; they occupied congress buildings and government offices chanting the chants we hear too often on the streets.

And through the images and videos they disseminated into the Internet, I did hear them.

Social media has dramatically changed the landscape of the world and how we connect with one another. We have seen the power that it holds in our world with the way news is now circulated, how fast we learn of things happening from across the world and even when other countries attempt to influence another country’s elections.

In the past week, I have also been in the streets. Marching in support of womyn and poc everywhere, Off the Internet is what I got out of it. The need to do something that I have the power to do, to create a space that I hope will thrive in the face of real obstacles but also celebrate the work that is being done off the internet.

Too often, we hear or see threads of arguments steeped in hate that often never address or take on a real outlook on a situation. I hope this blog will take on that responsibility and offer some solace in having a deeper conversation where none on the internet seem to appear. Whether I’m successful in attempting to do so is not my judgement but yours.

In solidarity,

Sam