The U.S. Border Crisis: The Deal with Mexico Works, But Can the Results Be Sustainable? (II)

The U.S. Sourthern Border BEFORE ...

and DURING the Trump Administration

by Laura Lai/Essay

But are these results too good to be sustainable?  

            These positive results correlated to the 2016 U.S. electoral campaign, occasion on which the future President Donald Trump promised to secure the borders, to enforce the law and to reform the immigration system, prove so far that President Donald Trump delivers on his promises. In a democracy, a candidate in a campaign – be it individually or collectively as a party – is elected or not depending on some sort of a ‘contract’ that they make with the voters. This ‘contract’ has different names: ‘electoral program’, ‘campaign promises’, etc. Due to the fact that too many candidates and too often do not deliver on their promises, this ‘contract’ is also informally called ‘campaign lies’, ‘empty promises’ and so on. The problem is that this ‘contract’ does not mention anything about what to do, if those elected do not stick on their promised program or on their campaign promises. The voters need to wait until the next round of elections, in order to sanction those voters and many times to put in place the friends or families of those just not elected. This very wrong-doing is a pity, quite a moquery to democracy itself. The U.S. President Donald Trump definitely knows what a ‘contract’ means and how important it is to respect its terms for your own reputation in the field! [No, I have not been paid either by the Americans or by the Russians (or anybody else) to say this.] It must be a professional habit he developed, since he worked as a businessman. And this great professional habit enforces his reputation of a president who delivers on his promises.

            Therefore, results can be very good and very true, although we are all used with the opposite formulation (‘too good to be true’). We are also used with the ‘too beautiful to last’. It seems that the Trump Administration found the man to work against all these clichés. On the U.S. Immigration policy and after decades of neglect the work must be huge. In order for the reforms to last last, this Administration made an exhaustive analysis and approached the problem holistically.

            During the crisis, the President struggled with the Democrats for more resources to handle the situation as it was, while assessing the whole immigration system, in order to keep what is good and to fix what is broken. And all decisions concerning what is good and what is broken and especially on deciding the ways to fix it, was based on the great imput brought by law enforcement professionals working in the field (and even on the field) rather by the politicians.

            At the pick of the crisis, in May 2019, President Trump presented in the Rose Garden his Administration’s vision of a ‘fair, modern and lawful system of immigration’ (for the entire video speech, click here). The new policy starts from the observation that the current immigration system is incapable of attracting the ‘best and the brightest’ from the whole world, as the United States used to:

‘With the current system we discriminate against genius. We discriminate against brilliance.’

The new policy is based on the historical fact that America is a country of immigrants and will stay a country of immigrants, but it correlates the modernization of its system to the prosperity of the whole country. In this sense, Trump Administration considers more in the American society’s best interest to have a modern and easy-to-navigate points-system, similar to the Canadian one, that is based on merit and skill, in order to attract world’s best doctors, researchers, brilliant students, etc. The ‘Build America Visa’ would be America’s win in its struggle against genius and brilliance discrimination. The overly discussed wall is itself part of the immigration policy and the border security campaign promise. The border wall that will replace the border fence along its Southern border with Mexico will have precise check points that will generate cross border revenues and have its own trust fund. The wall border is considered a physical barrier to remove all possible incentive to smuggle women and children across the border and a technologized border will scan products crossing the border and will curb the drug flow.

            The loopholes of the immigration and asylum laws are part of what is broken and need to be fixed. On August 21^st, the White House announced that one of the greatest loopholes got closed: the Flores Settlement. This settlement obliged the U.S. officials to release into the U.S. in max. 20 days all adults with children (including fake families) and hope that they will ever return for their hearings. This settlement was acting as a ‘magnet’ for kidnapping, buying, trafficking, use and reuse of lots of minors (for a video click here). On this occasion, the U.S. President declared that:

‘To protect these children from abuse, and stop this illegal flow, we must close these loopholes. This is an urgent humanitarian necessity.’

The asylum seekers from all over Central and South America are now demanded to seek asylum in the first safe country they entry and for those in Mexico claiming asylum in the United States should ‘remain-in-Mexico’ until asylum is granted. Actually, on the 21^st of August the ‘Washington Examiner’ counted no more and no less than 17 measures taken in 2019 to secure the border and to diminish the illegal immigration flow at the Southern border.

            In spite of all critics, the U.S. Supreme Court came twice in support of Trump Administration’s reforms of the immigration and asylum policy. A first Supreme Court’s decision (on July 29th) allowed the Administration to dispose of $2,5 billions of Defense Department, in order to continue building the wall. The U.S. President Donald Trump made a trip to California on September 18^th, in order to see firsthand the way works on the building of the wall proceed (to see the video, click here). And the proceedings are fulfilling the President’s exigencies. A second decision of the Supreme Court (on September 13^th) was in favor of President Trump’s immigration policy allowing the asylum restrictions to take effect.

To sum up, the United States has been dealing with a situation along its border with Mexico for decades. The illegal crossings (accompanied by drug smuggling, children’s abuse, raped girls and women) reached its humanitarian and security crisis peak in May 2019.

The Trump Administration approached the situation holistically, working both with internal and external political actors. The fact that Mexico agreed on a deal and respected its part of the deal was not only a significant contribution, but actually playing a vital role in diminishing the number of illegal crossings and apprehensions. It is in its Mexican counterpart that the U.S. President Donald Trump found the political partner, who acted right away after the sealing of the agreement, while with its own American (Democrat) fellows he needed a long and argumentative political struggle to recognize the existence of a humanitarian and security crisis. The bipartisan agreement with the Democrats to increase the funds for those already in shelters, was definitely also highly relevant in overcoming the humanitarian crisis.

Now that the crisis is overcome, the loopholes are removed, new rules (with the U.S. Supreme Court’s approval) are in place, a new immigration and asylum policy is entering into force and the U.S. President and the Vice President are assessing firsthand the situation, there are no doubts that beautiful results can also last and reforms can be sustainable. (the end)