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National & World Issue

Do you support Trump's strict stance on border protections, or Harris' target approach to immigration?

Score for this "Trump" opinion : 8.8

"Trump’s the Right Man to Protect Our Borders" Jul 16, 2024

There are several kitchen table issues that you’ll find quite a few people to be ultimately indifferent about. However, the issue of our country’s border security isn’t one of them. While the manner of approach and language will usually differ, at the end of the day, the people are divided into two groups – those who want the illegal migrants to stay away and those who are all for welcoming them with open arms. So far, there is no middle ground on that subject.

What is interesting, though, is that, regardless of which side of the fence the average American is on, every one will readily agree on one thing – the nation’s border security is broken, and terribly so, too. This begs the question; who is the best person to fix the mess that is the United States border patrol right now? How can we protect our dear country from being exploited and undermined through our leaky border? What is the most effective and efficient approach to handling the immigration crisis on our hands?

The interim commander in chief of the Army and the Navy, President Joe Biden, has shown us through clear action what he can and intends to continue to do about the immigration problem, policies that Harris would presumably continue. To sum it all up in one word – nothing. No one in their right mind would assume that the president is actively in control of this situation when a staggering 7.2 million immigrants have made their way into the country since he assumed office! What greater evidence does anyone need to see before they can finally accept that this man doesn’t have what it takes to get us out of this mess? If anything, he only seems best equipped to dig us even deeper into this hole!

Now, former president Donald Trump is a little rough around the edges. Is this excusable for someone who wants to be tasked with the great undertaking of leading arguably the greatest nation in the world not once but twice? No, it isn’t. However, it is perfectly understandable, when you consider the fact that he didn’t come to office the first time as a part of the political institution. What’s more, it’s because this man has no noteworthy political pedigree or history that makes him perfect for fixing certain issues.

Let’s look at Trump’s position on illegal immigration in depth. Trump promised to make this issue a thing of the past when he assumed office for the first time. And, if we are to be brutally honest, he didn’t make good on all his vows on that front. However, this isn’t for lack of trying. For starters, the Democratic-led resistance ensured that he faced nothing but obstacles where he should’ve gotten overwhelming support. And, he could’ve taken a slightly better approach than insisting that Mexico pay for the wall he wanted to build. All of that said, it must be pointed out that Trump did far more than incumbent president Biden while he was in office. Not only did Trump set up a 450-mile barrier to deter illegal crossings, but he also wasn’t hesitant to issue travel bans on migrants from countries like North Korea, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, among others.

Trump doesn’t have any plans of cuddling and covertly encouraging illegal immigrants to overrun the country like Biden. To that end, Trump intends to not only build mass detention camps to make up for the deficit at the moment but also promptly revoke the Flores settlement. This will give border security the power to detain family units for longer periods. The absence of such legal authority has been more damning than most people could suspect, as it has largely compromised the ability of border security to see their obligation of protecting the border all the way through to the end.

The former president has also gone on record to say, should he make it into office once again, he plans to fashion his deportation strategy after the Eisenhower model. This is a covert reference to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback in 1954, a program that used any means necessary to identify and eject anyone who entered the country through illegal channels.

Also very important is the fact that Trump fully intends to scrape the various temporary protection programs in use right now and initiate the prompt deportation of all their beneficiaries. As such, we will hopefully be seeing an end to programs like Temporary Protected Status, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and humanitarian parole, among others. This will hopefully lead to the ejection of at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants. Putting an end to such initiatives is crucial because these are among the many guises under which people who shouldn’t be in the country infiltrate it and continue to constitute a drain on what is already vastly limited resources.

Finally, Trump is going back into office with every intention of permanently suspending the refugee program. Again, Trump has his first stint in office as unwavering proof that he isn’t all talk on this matter. While he was president, he cut the program extensively. However, he has rightly seen that those efforts aren’t enough and is out to put an end to the program permanently. While in office, he reduced the resettlement cap to an all-time low of 15,000 from the 110,000 he met when he assumed office in 2017. Now, he intends to bring it to zero and finally block this avenue of exploiting the American migration system.

Now, are these efforts enough to get us out of the quandary we find ourselves in right now? The simple truth is that they are far from enough. But what is also true is that it’s a step in the right direction. We can’t keep following the same approach and expecting a different result. It’s certainly true that some of these actions can be considered a little bit extreme. But in light of the situation that we find ourselves in, most of these things simply have to be done, and Trump is the right man to do it all!

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