Immigration: The Issue Before Trump

Abstract

An attempt is made to understand U.S. President Donald Trump’s perspective on the illegal immigration problem his country faces and his approach to addressing it. We look at available information in the public domain and describe the framework that emerges from our study that appears to be the basis of his solution. We conjecture that Trump sees the massive flood of immigrants from Mexico as an implicit declaration of war by Mexico on the U.S. and he is determined to deal with it on a “zero tolerance” basis with an action plan executed on par with the ruthlessness of military action. He may have subconsciously drawn inspiration from the way President Truman dealt with Japan towards the end of World War II to bring closure to the war. We also note that since its independence (04 July 1776), the U.S. has gradually weaned itself from being a land of the immigrants by giving itself a Constitution, a Flag, and a National Anthem to a land of the Americans. The land of the immigrants is now a nostalgic recollection.