On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump officially announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election. As he began his campaign he also quickly began to show his opinions on issues such as ISIS, Obamacare, and illegal immigration. On this last topic, he claims that “You have people coming in, and I’m not just saying Mexicans, I’m talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists and they’re coming into this country,” essentially claiming that the majority of immigrants are criminals.

Trump is an extremist. From his idea of the wall on our southern border, to plans for the illegal immigrants already in the country, he aims to do whatever he thinks is right, at that particular moment, without looking at the bigger picture. These ideas are not what America needs to move forward. His way of dealing with immigration issues is extreme and incredibly immature for the President of the United States. In contrast to his racist view, what America needs is less regulation and more protection for immigrants. The DACA program needs to be made permanent, and Dreamers should be given a path to full citizenship.

During the beginning of his candidacy, Trump said, “Legal status. We got to move ’em out, we’re going to move ’em back in if they’re really good people.” In this quote, he claims that all illegal immigrants should be moved out of the U.S. and then, if they’re ‘really good people,’ they can come back. While he has changed his stance on immigration many times since this statement, it still shows his general approach to dealing with the topic. He believes that people should leave their homes, putting their lives at risk, only to possibly return. These people deserve to be here as much as American-born citizens, unless he’s planning to deport them too.

Along with this, Trump’s comments are clear examples of textbook racism. Here, he claims that most Mexicans are rapists and murderers. He seems to have a strange disconnect between his world and what’s actually happening: the statistics reveal that people who are born in America are far more likely to commit crimes than immigrants are. He insults and demonizes other countries with racist comments and puts US-born people onto a pedestal.

A recent example of this is when he asked ““Why do we want all these people from ‘sh*thole countries’ coming here?”, referring to people from El Salvador, Haiti, and Africa immigrating to America. His use of foul language towards other countries is inappropriate for the president and immature considering the topic at hand.

These are people with lives and when they come to America, whether by themselves or with other people, like their parents, they want to leave where they used to live. They deserve respect, including the kids who came with their parents and couldn’t decide what to do themselves.

Another example of Trump’s recklessness on this issue is his plan for DACA. He endangers almost 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants as he threatens the 2012 DACA plan, carelessly using it as a bargaining chip against Democrats. This plan allowed young immigrants who came here illegally, as children, to work legally in the United States. Known as ‘Dreamers,’ these people could face deportation as soon as March 5th. These protections need to be kept: these Dreamers are a part of America just as much as any other citizen. They work and they fight and they bleed and believe in this country just like anyone else who lives here. Yet Trump has decided that, because of the color of their skin, they are not ‘true’ Americans. Deporting Dreamers could have enormous effects on the economy, as it would remove hundreds of thousands of workers and halt economic growth. His immigration plans are a threat to the individuals of this country as well as the country itself.

Trump’s views for America don’t fit with the country and its future. In a country founded by immigrants and built upon liberation, Trump seeks to raise already heavy borders that will stop people from coming to this country. He wages a war on immigrants with every racist comment, every stereotype, and every political strike. There is no one “true” vision for an American: it is a country of diversity. All of his attacks on immigrants are an attack on America itself.

Plans need to be created for immigrants; there needs to be a better system for those who have come here for a new start, and those that already call America home. The Dreamers need to be given a path to full citizenship, as they are already citizens in every way except for the paper. They came here as children with hope for a better future; imagine achieving that dream and then having it all taken away by the whim of the president. His racism needs to be stopped as well; as a country, America should be well past that point. People should be judged based off of who they are as a person, not the color of their skin. Sadly, our current president seems to do the opposite, defining people largely by their race.

Trump’s ideas go against the very foundation that America has been built on. He focuses on race and tries to stop immigration with his policies. Letting his plans pass will destroy America; our country, previously seen as a beacon of freedom and hope, will become as trapped as the people that he criticizes. Under his plans, people will no longer be protected, and will instead be rejected into unsafe conditions or places. Everyone deserves to feel safe; Trump doesn’t seem to understand the basic idea that people, no matter their religion or the color of their skin, are still people.

Creative Commons photo source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyswork/37171867285/