On the eve of the National Convention that will take place from July 15 to 18 in Milwaukee, the Republican Party unveiled one of the most anti-immigration platforms in the history of the country.
The list of promises against migrants clearly reflects Donald Trump’s political thinking and confirms the central axis of his campaign for the presidency: the visceral attack against migrants.
The first promise of the Republicans is to close the border with Mexico, as Trump himself recently offered when he assured that it would be one of the first actions if he wins the November 5 elections and becomes “dictator for a day”.
Secondly, Republicans promise to implement the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States, in order to stop what they describe as the “invasion” of undocumented immigrants into the country.
To achieve their goal, Republicans propose reestablishing the controversial Title 42 that allowed the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people during the pandemic, as well as reviving the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
But they even go further. They propose withdrawing soldiers from other parts of the world and sending them to the border with Mexico, in addition to carrying out an unprecedented total maritime blockade in the region to stop the entry of fentanyl and chemical precursors.
Finally, they commit to carrying out one of Trump’s main dreams: completing the wall on the border with Mexico, to achieve his goal of sealing the border to migrants.
The logic behind all of these proposals is based on the idea that migrants come to the United States to commit crimes, displace American workers, and place a disproportionate burden on the American economy.
We all know that these premises are false. Migrants do not commit crimes at higher rates than Americans do, they do jobs that the local workforce rejects, and their net benefit to the U.S. economy is positive, as demonstrated during the pandemic.
The reality is that an electoral platform based on anti-immigration policies is not only morally questionable, but also ineffective and counterproductive.
The real solutions to economic and security problems are not found in exclusion and repression, but in inclusion and integration.
Politicians who truly want to serve their communities must pursue policies that recognize and value the contributions of migrants, and that promote a more just and equitable society for all.
Donald Trump boasts that he has more Latino voters in his bag than other presidential candidates and has even reached out to minorities of color to court his vote. Some polls suggest that his advances are partially successful.
But the verdict on Trump and the Republicans’ immigration, economic, educational and reproductive rights policies will be delivered on November 5. Because the beauty of democracy is that nothing is written in stone, but the final chapter is written by those who vote. Your vote is your voice, but it is also the voice of millions of migrants who are not eligible to vote.
