Donald Trump’s 30 Billion Ransom

By Felicia J. Persaud

News Americas, MIAMI, NY, Fri. Feb. 2, 2018: To many Dreamers, whose lives are in limbo and who may be going through unimaginable stress at the thought of what March 5th will mean for them, the mention by Donald Trump of a path to citizenship for some 1.8 million may seem like a life line.

A ‘dream’ finally realize! But lost in the dialogue, beyond the fact that Trump cannot be trusted, is the biggest modern-day ransom that 45 is trying to boldly pull-off.

Throughout his sordid and racially tinged campaign, Trump repeatedly and brazenly proclaimed that Mexico would pay for his “big, beautiful wall… with a door,” all along the US’ southern border.

Now over a year later, Trump is demanding 30 billion in ransom – without blinking an eye – from American taxpayers, in exchange for 1.8 Dreamers to stay in the US and possibly earn citizenship – sometime in the next decade or so.

That’s roughly $20,000 per Dreamer! Yet no one it seems in the Republican Party, finds this outrageous or even remotely disconcerting; while Democrats, in their haste to help keep Dreamers here, are now happy to even make Trump’s dream of ‘Berlin Wall’ 2018, come true.

As a naturalized immigrant, I am all for taking a stance for Dreamers; but as an American taxpayer, I will not help fund a white elephant at the border, that will serve absolutely no real purpose.

I will support border security – via electronic monitoring and agents on the ground – but I will not help pay for Trump’s “big, beautiful wall;” and I know a lot of people who will not – especially not via this bold modern-day ransom demand.

If Democrats are willing to go along with this White House plan, then let us throw in all non-criminal, undocumented immigrants into the mix, end the decades old problem of illegal immigration within the border and then close-down the loop holes and the border.

I have no problem with ending the visa lottery in favor of increasing skilled based visas and I also have no problem ending aspects of family migration such as sponsorship of married and older siblings.  Sure I know the plan is to put an end to the growing number of black and brown immigrants and change the demographic landscape of the future, but I can blink on that if it means  some form of legalization for millions of non-criminal, hardworking, tax paying immigrants, who have been in this country for more than a decades in some cases and who are part of the fabric of this American society.

These are reality-based requests that can be negotiated to match Trump and his White House’s racist agenda to lower migration to the US and shut the border. Skilled immigrants will always be needed, regardless of how much they wish those immigrants would be of a lighter melanin.

As someone who became a US citizen because of a skilled immigration option in the law, I know for a fact that they cannot stop the brains of us immigrants, both brown and black, regardless of how much they see us as from ‘s-hole’ countries.

But Democrats would be remiss to give into Trump’s racist, highway robbery without winning a deal for all undocumented immigrants who can pay a fine, learn English and get some form of legal status to stay in this country even if citizenship may not be on the cards.

The writer is CMO at Hard Beat Communications, Inc. which owns the brands: NewsAmericasNow, CaribPRWire and InvestCaribbeanNow.