When Donald Trump descended the golden escalator and began his historic ascent to the presidency, there was one issue that set him apart from every other major national figure: immigration.
Former President Donald Trump understood Americans’ rising alarm as millions of illegal immigrants continue to pour into our nation, decade after decade, with no end in sight.
The economic ramifications of illicit mass migration are deliberately left ambiguous. Does the value of largely unskilled labor offset the drugs, crime, and drain on social programs that accompany illegal immigration? Are Americans being displaced from the workforce? Are the jobs that illegal immigrants perform truly work that “Americans won’t do” as is often alleged?
Back in 1990, with the United States basking in the glow of Reagan economics and Cold War victory, these questions didn’t seem important, or at least not urgent. But they are much more urgent now. Since 1990, the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. has declined by 5.1 million, from 17.7 million to 12.6 million. At the same time, the population has risen from 248 million people to 332 million people, many of whom are legal or illegal immigrants. How many illegal immigrants? No one knows, but private researchers suggest that the number may be much higher than official estimates — perhaps as many as 29 million illegal immigrants at any given time.
Whatever economic damage is being done pales in comparison to the human toll of the open border. Mexican drug cartels use the southern border to smuggle wholesale quantities of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana into the U.S. Human trafficking is a persistent and growing problem as well. The costs imposed on our law enforcement, legal, and social service systems are incalculable. The damage done to our society and families, including the personal cost in lives ruined by addiction, is tragic and should horrify everyone.
Against the backdrop of a lawless border riddled with crime, pumping deadly poison into our children, and exploiting millions of immigrants for the profit of criminal cartels, the Biden administration has stepped in to eliminate the Title 42 policy enacted by Trump, which let him expel more than half of incoming migrants at the border since March 2020. This is part of a broader open borders agenda being implemented by the Biden administration and the permanent state, which has flooded the U.S. with migrants for decades, both legal and illegal.
These are not the actions of a serious nation. We must once again have a border policy that puts the safety of our citizens and those of our neighbors first. We should target and rapidly achieve a zero illegal immigrant policy through patrols, walls, and deportations. Criminal cartels must be smashed on both sides of the border by focusing domestic law enforcement resources inside our jurisdiction and by more aggressively coordinating our formidable intelligence assets with allied foreign powers who need assistance in rooting out long-entrenched criminal empires. A well-run temporary non-immigrating foreign worker visa program, specially targeted for seasonal employers, could be an asset in thwarting illegal immigrants unnecessarily filling U.S. jobs. However, Congress needs to pass legislation to update and reform those programs.
If this nation is to weather the uncertain future before us, we must once again be a prosperous and free nation at home, fully secure in our continent, with a healthy, growing society. The pioneer spirit that made this nation from sea to shining sea, saw us through the dark hour of war and depression, and steeled our resolve against the menace of global communism must be rekindled.
Securing our borders is the first step in the journey of national revitalization. It cannot happen soon enough.
Billy Long represents Missouri’s 7th Congressional District.
