The Great Trump-Fecta: Immigrants can’t pop the nativist bubble

What’s dominating today’s politics? A billionaire, a border and the upcoming ballot.

Donald Trump is a presidential candidate — let that thought sink in. Already, Trump has made his mark on the race, by denouncing an entire Mexican immigrant population in that belligerent manner that has come to mark his candidacy. It would be a futile mission to address all of Trump’s ill-conceived sayings, so we have decided to address one that has resonated strongly with us here at The Pitt News — immigration, and the immigrant’s place in this country and its politics.  

Immigrants can’t pop the nativist bubble 

As a child, when I first embarked on the path to indecision — namely, beginning to think about what I wanted to do as a career — I decided that I was going to become the future President of the United States of America.

My first planned decree: banish all onions.

But then the realization that I was not, and would never be a natural born citizen set in.

My mother had joked that my brother, born in San Diego shortly after we moved to the U.S., would become president in my place. I looked upon him with skepticism — granted, no four year old is a sign of presidential promise, but my brother, it seemed, was set farthest from the path. As time went on, I often reflected on how a few years had set my brother and I on vastly different paths.

What started as an incomprehensible sanction to my childhood self inevitably turned into the realization that immigrants have no place in this country.

Immigrants have never found support in the U.S. because of the nativist emphasis in politics. While immigrants may be one of the most talked about demographics, we also have the least representation in politics.

A presidential candidate can never truly look like us, represent us or live out our experiences. The Constitution’s “natural born citizen clause” acts as an eligibility requirement insisting on natural-born citizenship status to seek the office of the president and vice president.

The standard exists to prevent foreign influence — but seems nonsensical considering today’s day and age, in which foreign influence has become increasingly prevalent.

According to the United States Census Bureau, about a quarter of children under 18 have at least one foreign-born parent, and the foreign-born population was at 12.9 percent in 2010. About 20 percent of the international community immigrates to the U.S.

The Migration Policy Institute places the number of immigrants, first and second generation, at a quarter of the current American population, or about 80 million people.

And yet, “natural born citizenship” remains closely tied to the very idea of the presidency.

Obama, born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and American mother, inspired the birther movement— a movement built entirely upon an incessant obsession with his birth certificate and informally led by hotel mogul and recent Presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Even now, years since Obama’s announcement to run in 2007, birthers continue to question his American loyalty. Trump, seemingly placated by the 2011 release of copies of his birth certificate by the White House, still refused to admit Obama’s rightful birth in a recent interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

But then, Trump is no friend of immigration. He entered the 2016 presidential race riding on a tidal wave of intolerance with his now infamous remarks on Mexican immigrants — a move that cut his ties with Univision, Macy’s, NBC and all illusions of common sense.

Presidential hopefuls scrambled to respond to the outcry.

Republican candidates have largely tried to ignore the filterless commentary. There were some outliers who defended Trump, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and only a few other Republican candidates, such as former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) who condemned Trump.

Trump emerged victorious through it all. He eventually claimed the leading position in Republican polls, where he has remained long into post-debate days.

Immigration activists are scratching their heads in confusion — how did Donald Trump get away with calling an entire Mexican immigrant population a group populated by rapists and criminals? In fact, how did he go on to become the most popular Republican presidential candidate?

In reality, this country has always played a nativist hand when it came to immigration, and immigrants have long paid more than their fair share — of pride, effort and silence — for a shot at the American dream.

I’m no stranger to that sacrifice — as a 20-year-old college student, it is incredibly frustrating to be ineligible to vote — to be unable to play even the smallest part in inciting change.

And, while our legislative thoughts are unappreciated — our money and lives certainly aren’t.

In 2012, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy determined that the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants residing in the country at the time had contributed 11.84 billion dollars in taxes to local and state governments.

There are only two countries in the world that tax non-citizens in the same way that they tax their citizens. They are Eritrea, where I was born, and the United States.

According to data collected by the Department of Defense in February 2008, 65,000 immigrants were serving on Active Duty in the armed forces at the time, with 8,000 more enlisting in the U.S. army every year.

A GOP bill known as the ENLIST Act has been recently reintroduced in Congress. The bill, if passed, would allow completion of military service to make undocumented immigrants eligible for citizenship.

And immigrants who have already earned citizenship can keep hostile buffoons like Trump from the presidential seat.

But despite whatever validation that serves, we can still never hold that seat ourselves.

It will be a long time before the “American Dream” feels like more than an elusive dream to immigrants — especially, as we approach this coming 2016 presidential election.

Bethel is the Opinions Editor of The Pitt News and primarily writes on social issues and current events.

Write to Bethel at beh56@pitt.edu.

Editor’s note: This column is part of a complementary series on the role of immigration in politics. For the corresponding component, see “The Great Trump-Fecta: Do not engage the xenophobes, for history proves them wrong.”