The three issues that will probably decide the next Presidential election are (1) Inflation, (2) Wars in the Ukraine and Middle East, and (3) Illegal immigration.
Inflation is not really under the control of the President (rather, it’s the Federal Reserve’s job), but any incumbent President is typically held responsible when inflation spikes. The economy is actually humming along, and the stock market just set its all-time high. However, things cost more, and an incumbent President is usually blamed when that happens.
The enormous cost of America’s financial aid involvement in the Ukraine and Middle East situations is reaching the breaking point. Politically, it is hard to justify so much money being dropped down those ratholes. And both are no-win situations for the Biden Administration: Ukraine is not even an ally of the U.S. (nor is it in NATO) and there are blocs of voters in America who are supportive of Palestinian and Israeli goals. No matter which way Joe Biden leans, he gets criticized.
The biggee, though, is the immigration issue. We have a problem with keeping our borders secure, particularly with Mexico, and the Biden Administration hasn’t done much to stop the flood of illegal immigrants.
Personally, I believe that managed immigration is a good, almost necessary, thing to keep our economy robust. People who come from other countries to seek the American Dream typically bring new ideas and a strong work ethic. Immigrants built the Greatest Nation on Earth: there’s no debate about that.
However, the United States can’t be the repository of everyone who wants to escape political turmoil and poverty in Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. We just can’t absorb all of these folks fast enough and within our means.
I don’t agree with Donald Trump that illegal immigrants are “vermin”, “rapists”, “drug dealers”, and “murderers”. Rather, they are human beings trying to better themselves, and they typically blend in and contribute. The truth of the matter is that lots of these hard workers, once they get here, are employed by agribusiness corporations that desperately need cheap, low-skilled workers. They also populate small businesses that provide janitorial, landscaping, construction, home cleaning, food prep, and household “nanny” services.
Presidential candidate Trump has lately been ranting about unwanted immigrants “poisoning the blood” of America. This is unfortunate, because it’s the same language that Hitler used to excite German crowds on his way to establishing the Nazi culture and provide him an excuse to exterminate 6 million Jews. In Trump’s case, he particularly calls out immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia as the bad guys who are “ruining” our country. He likes European immigrants, though, like his Slovenian wife Melania; presumably, she isn’t poisoning the blood in the U.S. (Come to think of it, his previous wife Ivana was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia. Did she poison the blood of her children Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric?)
As silly as the Trumpian whistleblowing to his M.A.G.A. cult is, there is some validity that the underlying issue of illegal immigration is a very real problem that is not being adequately addressed. Trump made a lot of noise about it when he was President, built walls and had Federal officers harass would-be immigrants, but the problem continued. Under Biden, that flow of human beings continues unabated.
So, what is the answer?
There aren’t any perfect solutions. Sure, we could station our armed forces along the Mexican border to repel fence jumpers and tunnel diggers, as Trump is proposing. However, most illegal entry occurs at border checkpoints via autos and trucks and by simply flying into the U.S. and overstaying a Visa. The other problem is that our economy needs a continuing supply of cheap labor, doing the tough manual tasks that young American men and women don’t want to do. Unless our politicians come up with a newly-crafted “green card”/”visiting worker” program to satisfy our labor shortfall, draconian measures along the border will have indirect negative consequences on our economy.
As I have noted before, the scourge of illegal immigration would evaporate if the U.S. made employing an illegal immigrant a Federal crime (i.e. a felony punishable by hefty fines and jail time). This will never happen, however, because the same folks who want the impenetrable border walls also want the cheap labor that those Latin immigrants can provide. Our elected officials in Congress just can’t (or won’t) address the issue in a constructive way.
They prefer to kick the can down the road for the next Administration to deal with.
That’s American democracy in action.