President Trump and his supporters view immigration, as they view all things, in terms of their zero-sum belief. If someone comes to this country, she or he is a) taking jobs from American citizens; b) sucking up my tax dollars in food stamps, welfare payments and government-funded medical care; or c) a criminal preying on solid citizens like me. These assertions are not new, and only the last contains even a smidgen of truth, in that immigrants seem to commit crimes at the same rate as American citizens. If, however, one sees the world as a place of limited resources and options and therefore a place of constant brutal competition, these non-facts about immigrants justify eliminating millions of fellow human beings from the competition for goods.
Not surprisingly, this approach to life must view refugees as threats—potential competitors for scarce goods—and, because they are fleeing their homes, losers rather than victims. Because life is ceaseless competition, there is no room for irony or even knowledge of history, so the ban on immigrants was promulgated on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Furthermore, it seems the seven countries whose citizens are banned from entry into the U.S. seem to share one common criterion: There are no Trump business contacts in them. Citizens of other nations known to be way stations if not supporters of terrorism are not banned but, then, the Trumps have business dealings with some of them, like Saudi Arabia. I am waiting for the Republican-majority Congress to address the ethical and moral problems raised by President Trump's ban on immigrants. I suggest we write to our elected representatives and ask them where they stand on these issues and what they plan to do about them.
Comments