It’s great that President Trump, while having failed to curb illegal immigration, and while still struggling to build his “wall,” is engaged in piecemeal efforts to stop the flow of migrants bum-rushing the southern border. His supporters undoubtedly appreciate it, but they should know: Once Trump is gone, everything he tried to do will disappear with him.
Trump is heralding a “deal” he got with Mexico — he even waived a little piece of paper at the White House on Tuesday as proof! — that’s supposed to block off the hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Hondurans from trekking up to the United States, where they’re securing legal protection to stay just by claiming asylum.
The agreement came after Trump threatened to place tariffs on incoming goods from Mexico. He took credit for the tactic, proudly telling CNBNC on Monday that “tariffs are a beautiful thing.”
Sure, whatever. But Trump won’t be president forever, and we can’t count on the next president to use tariffs to cajole Mexico into helping us fix our own problem, much less count on the next president to care about immigration at all.
In addition to the “deal” with Mexico, the administration is also working with the Guatemalan government to break up the human smuggling trade in Central America.
These are all noble efforts, but again, it’s fleeting. As goes Trump, possibly as early as January 2021, so goes every one of these projects.
There is only one way to stop the chaos at the border and that is for Congress to pass a law that ends the asylum scam.
Not one member of Congress can deny with a straight face that we have open borders so long as one secures legal rights to stay in the country by merely setting a single toe in the U.S. and saying the word “asylum.”
No tariff, tweet, or “wall” will fix the tragedy that the asylum law has become.
Trump might momentarily please his supporters with his Mexico “deal” but it was the equivalent of using a Band-Aid to address a shotgun blast to the face.
To fix the problem, Trump doesn’t need to deal with Mexico. He needs to deal with Congress.
