President Trump’s abhorrent remarks recently about non-white immigrants have generated an air of uneasy anticipation over the quickly approaching State of the Union address. As we all tune in to Trump’s remarks on January 30th, it’s important we recognize this Administration’s racist intent when it comes to its coercive deal with Congress in exchange for a permanent legislative solution for the 800,000 young immigrants whose lives were thrown into chaos after Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program this past September.
Following a rare televised meeting to negotiate a path forward on a permanent solution for DACA recipients and other undocumented young people, the White House signaled a return to their “Principles” & Policies” -a laundry list of the most extreme and xenophobic proposals put forth by Republicans over the years.
Though the principles have not been enacted into law by Congress, Trump has made clear that he expects these proposals to be tied to a legislative fix for DACA recipients. In a recent media briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that President Trump’s definition of a clean Dream Act includes eliminating the diversity visa lottery system, further militarizing the border under the false promise of “border security,” and severely narrowing the family immigration system, which Trump pejoratively dubs “chain migration.”
Given this new push by the Administration, it’s essential for the public to understand the coded language and subtext behind these widely used terms:
Securing the border = A $17 Billion Deception
Under the pretense of enhancing “border security,” Trump’s real priority is to secure funding for the construction of a southern border wall and increased surveillance infrastructure at the southern and northern borders. Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security, however, found as recently as September that the border is “more difficult to illegally cross today than ever before” resulting in “the lowest number of illegal entries at least since 2000, and likely since the early 1970s.” Nonetheless, in a desperate plea to fulfill his extreme campaign promise and appeal to his narrow base, Trump is adamant about tying the fate of undocumented young people and $66.9 billion in taxpayer dollars to this fear mongering tactic.
Obstructing Legal Family Reunification
In an added attempt to separate families, particular from non-white majority countries, Trump is pushing to break with our family-based immigration system and prevent legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens from sponsoring family members through the arduous and sometimes decades-long immigration process.
In pushing his anti-immigrant rhetoric, Trump has plucked the term “chain migration” out of obscurity to make people forget that what he truly wants is to keep families of color from being together.
The Trump Administration’s demonization of legal family reunification ahead of this month’s State of the Union distorts the values and priorities of the country.
Moving to End Visas that Encourage Diversity
Trump is also proposing to eliminate the diversity visa program altogether, a lottery-based path to permanent residence created to encourage more diversity amongst those migrating to the U.S., claiming that the only thing that matters is a high-skilled workforce. The view is laid all the more bare by Trump’s recent comments about wanting more immigrants from “Norway” and not other “shithole” countries. Diversity visa applicants must already possess various requirements such as “two years of training or experience,” a medical exam and no criminal record, in addition to a months-long background security check. For many African and Asian immigrants in particular, diversity visas are their only path to the United States, and in 2016, the State Department rejected more than 309,000 applications.
What Can You Do To Take Action?
Immigrant communities and advocates must continue to make clear to Congress that increasing enforcement measures while drastically reducing family-based immigration hurt immigrant communities and are an unacceptable trade off for protections for some immigrant youth.
Sign our petition to demand that news reporting ends its usage of dehumanizing terms such as “chain migration.”
Whether they choose to stay silent or to advance the costly, ineffective and inhumane policy priorities articulated by the Trump Administration, legislators aligning themselves with Trump’s anti-immigrant and racist positions are making the biggest political miscalculations of their careers.
