Viewpoint: Trump’s border bluster not worth the fuss

Jerome Walker

Immigration has become an exaggerated political issue lately, especially considering we or our ancestors all came here as immigrants, including Native Americans, who arrived from Asia way before anybody else.

Throughout our history, earlier arrivers have often disliked those who came later because they were “different.” Nevertheless, like many developed countries we have an aging population plus falling birth rates, so our work force requires immigrants, preferably carefully screened legal ones.

“Asylum seekers” also qualify as legal immigrants under The Convention Against Torture that we and others signed in 1988, if they can prove they risk persecution in their home countries.

The estimated 11 million immigrants who slipped in illegally over decades and remained exceeds the combined populations of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, and Utah. Trump, a convicted law-breaker himself, promises he’ll track down, imprison, and then ship all these fellow law-breakers back home. If Trump gets to even try this absurdity it will wreck our economy, currently the world’s strongest.

Last year Congress worked for months and drafted a strong bipartisan bill to protect our borders. In February Trump needed a campaign issue more than a solution, so he ordered Republicans to kill the bill.

Now since June federal authorities simply close the border for two weeks to all immigrants when border arrests of illegal immigrants exceed 2500/day. Border arrests now average around 2000/day, less than in fiscal year 2019 under Trump and before Covid hit. So what justifies all the fuss?