On Immigration, “shithole countries”, Trump and our policy.
We take in 1 million immigrants a year. Usually it’s not from the rich countries except in the case of China (“brown and yellow people” by the way) and Venezuela and the like where people want to get in the United States. It’s from underdeveloped or as Trump put it in-artfully and as did Ashley Judd sympathizing with deportees in a film, “can’t return them to a garbage dump” of a country.
I find Trump on old school pragmatist, not an idealist not what’s called progressive. He’s a knock you down, deal from strength guy modeled after Roy Cohen. He’s done a hell of a job finding low priced mismanaged assets and turning them around using the same skills. But I don’t see him as a racist because he wants PhD’s in math, so does Tom Friedman. Or because he wants legal immigrants.
On illegal immigrants, most are poor and come from Mexico and Central America across the border, China and Philippines (overstayed visa). This is illegal. 12 million of these people live here out of 350 million. 1 million are kids who came as youngsters. They are generally not white skinned. The Chinese kids often within a generation are getting into Berkeley etc. Engineers. The Mexican kids are working hard in agriculture now, construction and their own small business.
Cutting to the chase, the issue is of the 1 million legal, should we take 50% who graduate US colleges with PhD’s in Math or Physics etc. and 50% who are poor from countries like Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti or Liberia, Bosnia, Ukraine or Venezuela by virtue of relatives that are US citizens. These countries are underdeveloped, often politically unstable compared to our country. Trump is unfiltered. We don’t like Presidents to be that way, but cut to substance.
Of course, people don’t need to leave Norway and France or Britain nearly as much.
Dick Durbin in the meeting of six knew what Trump meant. Some countries are tribal like Congo or former Yugoslavia. Some will bring us Islamic terrorists, a fact of life, along with mostly law abiding Muslims who even as such some will maintain a different treatment of women and prejudice against our ally Israel.
These are real issues.
Universities also have limited enrollments. Do they take the best students even if from one or two cultures, or take diversity using other indicia. Certainly they don’t take students who have no education.
I must say I have a Guatemalan family working for me. The woman (38) never had an education beyond 6th grade. She cleans. She has three children. The oldest is 18. She works with her Mom while she is attending university. Hard worker. She may wind up a Doctor. This is the land of opportunity.
Of course, we don’t want gangs, or people who go to jail or homeless. We do want to fill needs of agriculture or construction or domestic or high tech. Sadly, some bad results of well intended social programs have taken incentive of too many of our home grown kids to learn to like to work full days. So we do need to import willing hard workers.
Bottom line is, secure the border over 10 years, legalize over 10 years 12 million illegals in that they came to fill jobs, de facto promise or estoppel in the law, starting with 1 million who came young. Articulate 50% of the 1 million to be advanced degrees most often from US colleges in Math, Physics, etc. 50% “close” relatives of existing 50% immigrants citizens.
Sincerely,
Peter Dwares
