by Domenico Maeri *-
SAN LUIS OBISPO (USA). “It will be dedicated to my late mother who is a source of pride for me. My mother was a wonderful woman who loved Scotland.” So Donald Trump in 2023 at the start of work on a new golf course in the birthplace of his mother, Mary Ann MacLeod. MacLeod emigrated to the United States in 1930 and there in 1936 he married Fred Trump, the father of the 45th president and current presidential candidate for the Republican Party.Thus one of the tycoon’s two parents was born outside the US.
In the case of his opponent, Kamala Harris, the candidate of the Democratic Party, both parents were born outside the US. His father, Donald J. Harris, was born in Jamaica, and his mother Shyamala Gopalan, in India. Harris reminded us of this in her party conference speech last month, focusing much more on her mother, with whom she grew up after her parents’ divorce.
Despite their links to immigration, neither of the two candidates in the election campaign talks about the contribution of immigrants to the creation and growth of the country. The rhetoric of the past used by both parties that the US is a country of immigrants seems to have been swept away by both current candidates but especially by the Republican candidate. It should be remembered that Trump began his descent into the political arena with a speech in which he accused Mexico of sending “people with problems who bring drugs, crimes” to the US, also accusing them of being “rapists”. Extremely harsh rhetoric that continues to this day and actually gets scarier almost every day.
In his rallies and even in his debates with Joe Biden in June and in September with Harris, Trump talked about the millions of immigrants attacking the country, assigning the blame to Biden and earlier short for Harris. The Republican candidate will particularly attack the Democrats for not controlling entries from the border with Mexico. The solution he proposed in his 2016 election campaign was to build a wall along the border with Mexico. In four years in office from 2007 to 2021, Trump managed to build only a small part of the 3,145 kilometers that separate the two countries. His solution now was to evict the eleven million residents without legal permission although he says there are many more.
Immigration is one of Trump’s strong points and the Democrats are seen by Americans as less able to solve the issue. According to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, Trump is 10 points ahead of Harris on the issue of immigration. So it is not surprising that the Republican candidate continues to talk about the attack of immigrants. Fear of foreigners produces results at the polls.
Harris and the Democrats admitted that they were behind and that they abandoned the bill that the Senate accepted last February. It was a law supported by Republican but also Democratic senators. The law would have expanded the number of border patrols by restricting entries if the numbers rise, allocated funds to expand the number of agents at the border and invested in technological equipment to catch drug traffickers. However, Trump torpedoed the law, threatening Republican lawmakers, seeing it as a potential victory for then-Democratic candidate Biden. House Speaker Mike Johnson did not put the legislation up for a vote. Harris said in her speech at the Democratic Convention that as president she would recommend the law again and would probably sign it and do it again in the recent debate against Trump. Speaking on the issue of immigration, Harris rightly said that Trump is not interested in solving the country’s problems, because he is worried about keeping the problems alive in order to get more votes in the November election.
In fact, the Democrats have recognized immigration as a negative, accepting the role of protectionism. However, there are very positive aspects to the economy. This was confirmed by Jerome Powell, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank, in an interview on the program 60 Minutes Cbs. Powell reiterated that the US economic recovery is the result of migrants who were prevented from entering the country during the pandemic for fear of infection.
Another proof of the importance of immigrants is offered to us by the city of Springfield, Ohio, which came under Trump’s radar for lying about Haitian immigrants. The former president revived fake news with the help of his deputy JD Vance according to how Haitian immigrants living in Springfield had stolen ducks from parks and even dogs and cats some American citizens to eat them. Nothing is true as the mayor of the city Bob Rue and also the governor Mike DeWine, both Republicans, denied. The two also recognized the value of Haitian immigrants who brought a breath of fresh air into the city. Springfield’s population had dropped from 80 to 60 thousand residents but now the 20 thousand Haitians have stabilized the population, providing essential manpower for local businesses.
In addition to the economic aspects demonstrated by the Springfield situation, America has always been a country strongly influenced by immigration. People from all over the world have come and are still coming. The lack of recognition of their contribution is largely due to Trump’s policies but also neglected by the Democrats including a huge gap, a way of rewriting history. It is sad that in order to achieve political success, both Trump and Harris only see the negative aspects of immigration and ignore the positive ones. In this, neither respects their parents for their lack of respect and recognition of the value of immigration. The two presidential candidates, with immigrant parents, do not see immigration with kindly eyes. In this they show that their parents were not respected but also the majority of Americans who have roots in every part of the world.
* Domenico Maceri, PhD, is professor emeritus at Allan Hancock College, Santa Maria, California. Some of his articles have won awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications.
