In a recent statement from President Trump, he said that Mexico needed to stop the flow of drugs into the US and that if she did not, Trump would impose tariffs against her according to a report:
President Trump on Thursday said he was giving Mexico a “one-year warning” to stop the flows of migration and drugs into the U.S., or he would slap tariffs on cars made there and close the southern border.
“We’re going to give them a one-year warning and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars,” he told reporters at the White House. “And if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.”
He said that Mexico had “unbelievable” and “powerful” immigration laws and that such a threat would be a “powerful incentive” for it to act.
The warning is a step back from the threat he issued last week when he threatened to close the border this week unless Mexico stopped “all illegal immigration” into the U.S.
On Tuesday, his stance appeared to soften, when he told reporters that Mexico had started taking further measures to stop migrants traveling into the U.S., and White House officials said that closing the border was one of a number of options on the table.
“I will say this, that Mexico the last four days has really done a great job on their southern border, with Honduras, with Guatemala, with El Salvador, of grabbing and taking and bringing people back to their countries,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday afternoon. “They have the strongest immigration laws, as strong as there is anywhere in the world. They can do it if they want to do it. They’ve never really wanted to do it for many, many years. And we’ve told them, ‘If you don’t do that, we’re going to close the border.’ But before we close the border, we’ll put the tariffs on the cars.
“I don’t think we’ll ever have to close the border because the penalty of tariffs on cars coming into the United States from Mexico at 25 percent will be massive,” the president added.
Trump also faced opposition from members of his own party, including Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who had warned that closing the border would have “unintended consequences.”
On Thursday, Trump said he fully intended to carry out his threat, but added the one-year delay, as well as the additional threat to put tariffs on cars.
“You know I’ll do it, I don’t play games,” he said.
Trump’s remarks came as the administration struggles to get a grip on the escalating crisis on the southern border, with Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) saying last week they were on track to apprehend more than 100,000 border crossers in March.
Trump declared a national emergency on the border in February after Congress granted only a fraction of the $5.6 billion he had sought for funding for a wall on the border. That move, which was opposed by both Democrats and some Republicans, allows the administration to access more than $3 billion extra in funding for the wall.
Since then, Trump has blasted both Congress and Mexico for not doing enough to stop the crisis at the border as numbers of migrants continue to increase.
“If we don’t make a deal with Congress…or if Mexico doesn’t do what they should be doing…then we’re going to close the border, that’s going to be it, or we’re going to close large sections of the border, maybe not all of it,” he said on Tuesday.
Trump will travel to Calexico, California on Friday where he will visit a recently completed part of the barrier on the border, as well as participate in a roundtable with local law enforcement officials. (source, source)
Such a statement comes across as condescending as it is not going to happen because of political reasons.
The government, regardless of party in charge, does not care about illegal immigration because it is an extension of US agricultural policy. Instead of making a more balanced form of immigration law, the government keeps it unbalanced and refuses to enforce border laws in order to encourage illegal immigration as a source of cheap workers that are not subject to the business liability laws that an American would be at a lower pay rate and with less complaints because of their immigration status.
When one goes to apply for a job in the USA as a “legal” American, most of the time it does not involve immediately filling out lengthy paperwork forms. If one does not fill out the forms at the time of the application, the employee will surely fill them out later on after being hired but before starting work. These forms are highly invasive regarding personal data, require an investment of time and effort, and are an utter nuisance to both the applicant and the employer. If a person is hired, then the employer is responsible for the removal of federal taxes, state taxes, social security, and depending on the size and nature of the business, supplying health insurance or not as well as paid time off and other benefits. If the employer makes a mistake in any one of these matters, he can be sued by either the employee or the government.
This is not to discount, at the same time, the fact that employers also can be abusive. Recall that in the Bible one of the four sins which cry out to vengeance is the defrauding of a working man of his justly earned wages, and that many of the US labor laws developed because of popular demand as a response to the highly abusive working conditions to which employers subjected their laborers. It is also why the Church has historically sided with the laboring man over the business owner, because as the owner is in a position of power, there is a greater likelihood that he will attempt to abuse those beneath him. Likewise, laborers also can be abusive to their employers with equally deadly consequences, committing the same sin that cries out to Heaven for vengeance by denying his employer his ability to make money to care for himself.
There is also another issue that is highly uncomfortable for many, which it the American attitude towards work. It is true that life in America is expensive. It is true that people should try to get the best possible pay for their work. It is true that America is a land of opportunities. However, it is also true that many American want high amounts of pay for minimal or easy types of work, and that many do not want to input considerable efforts at work. However, especially in industries where low pay is normal in order to turn a profit- such as in farm labor or in the case of manufacturing, the textile industry- most people in America are either lacking the physical fitness level, skill level, or patience to do the jobs, and many will quit a short time in. This does not refer to cases of “legalized abuse,” where some employers (particularly in the package shipping industries) work their employees to the point of injury and then will use legal jargon and agreements to cover for the abuse. Rather, this refers to the nature of work that is simply more difficult in itself but needs to be done.
Most employers will say most of the time that in the case of such jobs and not considering potential liability hazards, it is better to hire an illegal because they will work harder as they are motivated to work harder for their survival. Since many of them visit for work before returning (although certainly not all) or will ship money to their family residing in their native country, what is a low-wage salary for the USA is a high-wage for their nation. For example, the average household (not individual) income per month in Mexico is $843 USD, or $10,116 USD a year. Compare that with the USA, which is approximately $5,630 per month and $67,565 per year. The average American makes approximately 6.7 times more money per month than the average Mexican. Even if we consider the counties in the USA with the lowest PER CAPITA (NOT household) income, the absolute lowest is Wheeler County, GA, with an average of $1,355 per month or $16,267 per year, thus making the average person in the poorest county in the USA approximately 1.6 times wealthier than the average Mexican household for the ENTIRE nation of Mexico.
These numbers are just a comparison between the USA and Mexico. The average PER CAPITA income in Guatemala is $2,740 per year. In El Salvador, that number is $660 per year. In Honduras, that number is $342.
Consider that you are from Guatemala and say that you are earning an extremely low $2 per hour, working 40 hours a week. Even in such as ridiculous scenario, you will earn in 34 weeks what the average Guatemalan earns in a year. If you were from El Salvador, it would be 8 weeks. If you were from Honduras, it would be 4 weeks.
That is just $2 per hour. Now let’s say that one of these same people gets hired at a dairy farm to make $9 a hour. Working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week for 50 weeks in a year for a gross annual salary of $18,000 USD, the results are tremendous. The Guatemalan man would earn 6.5 years worth of money in one year. The El Salvadoran man would earn 27.2 years worth of money in one year. The Honduran man would earn 52.6 years worth of income in one year. Even the average Mexican man earns 1.77 times more than he would in Mexico.
This is the reason why people from these countries will risk their lives to come to the USA. These people see an opportunity to make in a year what it would take some of them a lifetime to earn. It means food on the table for their families, a chance to step out of bitter poverty into a less difficult poverty, and the hope of a future they could not otherwise dream of. What is a low-wage salary for an average American and understandably so is a gold mine to many of these people, and for them the risk of death is worth the potential reward.
In the defense of the employer, he needs to reduce his liability as much as possible, both business and personal. It does not take much thinking to determine that, sadly, there is a considerable liability to hire an American. Aside from the fact that many people understandably do not want to work for low wages because we all have bills and responsibilities in addition to the fact that life is very expensive in the USA, American are inclined to complain and frankly make excuses to avoid work. This is not meant as an insult, but a general observation of life. In addition, America’s cumbersome, contradictory, and willingly ambiguous laws also can allow for an unlimited variety of lawsuits. While some of these are necessary, many are not and they are made simply to try and legally rob another man of his justly earned wages.
In a pragmatic sense, American law favors abuse of the legal system as a form of extortion. While it can work for anybody, it is dangerous for a person illegally in or in on questionable legality to file a lawsuit because it would subject him to scrutiny, and when it is discovered that he is here illegally, he could be arrested and deported. While there is a risk of financial loss to an American, it is something he likely could recover from. For an illegal, the threat of deportation and as such destroying his newfound economic livelihood would be devastating. He does not have an incentive to attract any legal attention to him that could expose his status to the law.
You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
– Jesus, Matthew 23:24
As the farmer alluded to above, the ham-handed, legalistic, Pharisaical approach of American culture to law has resulted in the mess that exists today and is not going to go away because it benefits multiple parties.
Consider for a minute the nation of North Korea. North Korea is not a good nation. The Kim family hates Christians, abuses their power, has robbed, tortured, starved, and abused their people for decades without care. Lacking natural resources, industry, and real food, North Korea is one of the worst places to live on Earth. Yet she is surrounded by four major superpowers- China, Russia, Japan, and the US through her military bases and presence in the area. None of them have made any serious effort to aid the situation of the people, and the reason is because North Korea is a “buffer zone” for geopolitical quarreling. All sides can use the cover of North Korea for attacking each other as well as a scapegoat for their actions if caught.
American law functions much the same way. “Legally” Americans are “covered” and so are employers underneath a morass of regulations, paperwork and jargon. However, this also makes it difficult to find and maintain legal work, especially in low-paying industries. Undocumented immigration is still illegal, but the government and business, knowing that they cannot do business without changes to the law, encourage the immigration and hiring of such people in order that they can do business. If the business is caught, they blame falls on “the illegals” who are then rounded up and deported. Politicians can blame “the illegals” for causing the nation’s economic problems while ignoring economic and social realities, thus helping to ensure their own re-election, support, and income. It is ultimately the people, the illegals themselves, who are in the most precarious situation, as they are easily exploited and without protection, and in the hands of an employers with malicious intentions, can be treated just as bad as people were in 19th century America and whose plight was the reason behind the creation of so many of the labor laws.
Consider the case of Shalom Rubashkin, a New York Jew who ran the now bankrupt Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, IA. Rubashkin was arrested as part of a massive federal government investigation into a host of abuses at his business known as the Postville Raid. He employed hundreds of people illegally and forced them to work long hours and refused to pay or underpaid many of them. At least 18 employees were knowingly minors, and committed a host of health violations.
Rubashkin eventually reached an agreement where some of the charges were dropped in exchange for a 27 year long prison sentence, which he began serving in 2010. However, President Trump commuted Rubashkin’s sentence.
However, he was free after only 8 years in prison because President TRUMP- the man who talks about being ‘tough on illegals’- used his power commute prison sentences for the first time to commute Rubashkin’s sentence, at which time Orthodox Jews openly rejoiced:
As YWN was first to report, President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the prison sentence Sholom RUbashkin who was sentenced to 27 years in prison – the first time he’s used the presidential power.
…
Rubashkin’s long-time attorney Guy Cook praised the decision, saying his client “has finally received justice.”
“The sentence previously imposed was unfair, unjust and essential a life sentence,” he said via email. “President Trump has done what is right and just. The unrelenting efforts on Rubashkin’s behalf have finally paid off.” (source)
Rubashkin’s workers were not so fortunate, as many of them who were abused by Rubashkin were arrested, went to prison, and then deported.
Rubashkin was convicted for fraud in which he used illegal immigrants as veritable slaves to make money. In response to his actions, he did receive something of justice, and to his credit, when President Obama was asked to commute Rubashkin’s sentence, he refused to. Trump, however, made his FIRST commuted sentence that of a man who built his wealth off of the backs of illegal immigrants who he then had deported, and he complains that he did nothing wrong.
If Rubashkin’s actions were not sociopathic behavior, then what is? And TRUMP, who says he wants to get “tough” on “illegals,” just backed this man’s pathological support and exploitation of illegal workers by his actions.
Rubashkin still has his tens of millions of dollars. He has been attending events across the USA. He hasn’t lost anything but time.
But what about his workers who were deported? Who knows what happened to them. Do they still have food to eat? Have they returned to the USA? Are they even still alive?
America has created a situation that incentivizes, encourages, and supports illegal immigration that will immediately turn against these same people should it be financially or politically expedient to do so.
Trump is not going to build the wall. If he does build a wall, it is most likely not going to be built as to deal in any effective way with the immigration issue, but only to placate the public to believe that something is being done when nothing actually has changed. The people who will profit most from any wall will not be the public, but the private contractors with “revolving door” government connections that will propose expensive plans and in the name of “public security” rob the taxpayer with legal contracts. It will not stop in a serious way the border crossings.
During the administration of Bush II, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was in favor of constructing both a wall on the US-Mexican border as well as “enhanced screening” at US airports. Conveniently, Chertoff was also the owner of a company, the Chertoff Group, that specialized in marketing invasive body scanning machines to airports as a customer of the Federal government.:
Since the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff has given dozens of media interviews touting the need for the federal government to buy more full-body scanners for airports.
What he has made little mention of is that the Chertoff Group, his security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines. The relationship drew attention after Chertoff disclosed it on a CNN program Wednesday, in response to a question.
An airport passengers’ rights group on Thursday criticized Chertoff, who left office less than a year ago, for using his former government credentials to advocate for a product that benefits his clients.
…
Chertoff’s advocacy for the technology dates back to his time in the Bush administration. In 2005, Homeland Security ordered the government’s first batch of the scanners — five from California-based Rapiscan Systems.
Today, 40 body scanners are in use at 19 U.S. airports. The number is expected to skyrocket at least in part because of the Christmas Day incident. The Transportation Security Administration this week said it will order 300 more machines. (source)
These “naked body scanners” have done little to nothing for public safety. They are another addition to the mountain of evidence supporting the existence of the military-industrial complex, and how private corporations and individuals rob the public using the federal government as their shield.
America does not have a problem with illegal immigration. She has all the laws she needs to enforce whatever provisions that she wishes. She does have a problem with will, because the USA is beholden to her owners in business who produce the goods she consumes and the owners in finance who control the money supply of the nation and as the dollar is the world reserve currency, the world, that serves as a medium of exchange between business, government, and consumers.
Any law is only as good as the will to enforce said law, for without will a law remains ink on paper.
In the meantime, all of President Trump’s tough talk about the border is just talk, and if something is done, it will only be done for politically advantageous reasons. Until then, the prices of strawberries will still stay cheap and affordable, courtesy of the very migrant labor used to incite the drama that is American border politics in the national arena.
