Throughout his presidential campaigns in 2016, Mr. Trump had spoken about limiting access to U.S for immigrants from around the world, labeling undocumented immigrants as criminals and opposed free-trade agreements as well as political correctness. His vision and goal about U.S Immigration gained much public attention. He is, however, now seen by many in the States and around the world as an anti-immigrant due to his extreme and drastically changed immigration policies that border, according to some, on racism and insensitivity. Donald Trump assumed office in January 2019 and has, since then and before that, proposed and introduced a number of policies related to immigrants and their rights in the U.S to 'Make America Great Again'.
The Trump Wall
Donald Trump had seemed to be quite concerned about the undocumented immigrants coming to U.S through the southern U.S border with Mexico. He had repeatedly, since the inception of his presidential campaign, displayed his intention of building a 'big, beautiful door' made of concrete at the Mexico-U.S border so that the immigrants can enter the country peacefully and legally. He also emphasized that he would make Mexico 'pay for it'. He had backed up his propositions by saying that the number of unauthorized Mexican immigrants is increasing sharply, that these people are 'bringing' crime and drugs with them and had claimed them to be rapists. Whereas, figures and trends have shown a significant fall in recent unauthorized Mexican immigrants traveling to U.S but a rise in those coming from Central America and no clear evidence has been found proving any relation between drug abuse/sale and illegal Mexican immigrants.
Anyhow, Donald Trump still stands tall with his goal of building metal walls-he had mentioned concrete during campaigns- and his supporters chanting slogans of 'Build The Wall', 'Build That Wall'. He has recently shared with the public that he wants the wall to be black, with spikes at the top. A picture of the desired wall was also shared by him through a tweet.
Many people around the world, human rights organization and the Democrats have shown their disapproval of Trump's idea. Majority of Americans (58%) oppose the construction of this wall. It is considered inhumane, extreme and a total waste of money as that ample sum of money could be used to address and fix other, more important issues. On the contrary, Mr. Trump has declared this 'issue' to be an urgent and is working towards receiving the funds from suitable sources. He even mentioned that the urgency of this matter surpasses any other problem at the moment.
Review criterion for granting asylum to victims domestic violence
People who had suffered domestic or gang-based violence had been eligible for asylum in the U.S since 2014. In 2018, Mr. Trump proposed to give the U.S court officers who interview asylum seekers new orders to follow. The updated guidance concluded that victims were unlikely to receive asylum if their home country does not demonstrate 'a complete helplessness to protect the victim'. This move has affected-is expected to affect more-hundreds of asylum seekers, especially from Central America- victims of abuse, sexual assault and gang violence- in an adverse manner and has embedded in their minds a new sense of insecurity and fear. People are seeing U.S moving further away from being a welcoming country for all.
Citizenship as a Birthright
The Fourteenth Amendment, as interpreted and understood by most experts, states that any child born in the U.S has the right to a U.S citizenship by default, regardless of his/her origin and the citizenship of his/her parents (exceptions for those with foreign diplomats as parents existed). Mr. Trump had proposed to roll back this right for children with illegal immigrant parents back in 2015. However, it was announced in October 2018 that he plans to use an executive order to remove the mentioned birthright altogether for all foreigners.