– No, I don’t have papers, says Miriam from Ecuador. We meet her in a parking lot outside a church in Tucson, Arizona. She says that in August she walked through the desert across the border to the USA. Her ten-year-old daughter was with her. She and several other newly arrived immigrants are in the parking lot hoping to get work for the day. Several of them have crossed the border illegally. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news – When you don’t have papers, you can clean apartments, do gardening and work on construction sites, says Miriam to news. It is immigrants like her who are the main focus of Donald Trump and the Republicans in this year’s election. Dozens of migrants are waiting for day jobs as news stops by. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Number of migrants multiplied In 2016, immigration was the winning issue for Trump. It was also his opposition to immigration that went a long way in enabling him to take over the Republican Party. While he was president, children and parents were separated at the border and arrested. When the pandemic came, the border closed completely. The law, called “Title 42,” meant that asylum seekers had to wait in Mexico while their applications were processed. It was repealed by President Joe Biden in 2023. Then the number of migrants crossing the border exploded. When Trump was president, the border authorities encountered 2.4 million migrants in the border areas. In the last four years, the number has risen to eight million, according to the BBC. Never before have so many migrants arrived in the United States in four years, and it is difficult for the Democrats to run away from responsibility. What exactly is the problem with America’s immigration policy? Deputy Sheriff Ross Teeple wants to end illegal immigration. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Accepts zero illegal migrants On a trip to the border areas in Arizona, we get several different answers. We meet Ross Teeple, deputy sheriff in one of the counties on the border. He believes that illegal immigration must be stopped completely. – The acceptable number of illegal border crossings is zero, he says matter-of-factly. He believes the problem is a huge accumulation of applications in the asylum queue and that many illegal migrants are being released. Kamala Harris has promised support for 1,500 more caseworkers and asylum judges if she becomes president. – I support it, but why on earth didn’t they do it three and a half years ago, asks Teeple. Watch the URIX broadcast on immigration in the USA. In 2016, it was immigration that decided the election, Trump became president. Now he uses the same recipe, with extreme rhetoric. A little history lesson The USA is a country of immigrants, but there are many who believe that there have been far too many in recent decades. 14.3 percent of the population in the United States today are immigrants. In 1970, the proportion was only one third, just over four per cent. The reason is a more liberal immigration law the politicians adopted in 1965, which set quotas for how many could legally come to the United States, but also allowed those who received a residence permit to bring family members to the country. At the same time, it became possible for more and more people from Latin America to get up to Mexico, where they crossed the border to the USA illegally. Here you can see the border fence cutting through the Arizona desert. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news These two factors caused the immigrant population in the United States to grow rapidly. But instead of passing laws that tightened, many companies were happy with all the cheap labor coming into the country. Eventually it became the case in the United States that immigration pushed the wages of workers down. At the same time, the elite in both the Democratic and Republican parties were positive about immigration. It was this tension that Donald Trump used to become a successful politician. A majority of his voters have a lower education, and many have experienced tougher competition for jobs and a poor economy as immigration to the country has increased. Disagree For the past 40 years, American politicians have said that they are working for a comprehensive immigration reform. When George W. Bush became president from the border state of Texas, many had hope. But the politicians have not been able to agree. The closest they have come was this winter. A cross-party committee came up with a proposal that made it possible to close the border if too many arrived. But Donald Trump did not want the proposal to pass and communicated this view to Republicans in Congress. He would use immigration as an issue in the election campaign, the Democrats believe. In the end, there was no majority in favor of the proposal. “Americans will turn to the upcoming election to end the border crisis,” commented one Republican senator afterward. Tim Doherty takes news on a bumpy drive in the border areas of the Arizona desert. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Helping migrants Another person we meet in Arizona is Tim Doherty. He drives us for hours into the desert to show us how rugged and dangerous the terrain here is. The terrain where millions of people enter the United States. Tim actually comes from upstate New York, but has been volunteering to help migrants for almost 20 years. He believes that American capitalism has helped create an immigration crisis that leads to extensive human trafficking and that many people die. Tim spends a whole day showing news around the border areas. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news – I think the problem arose when American companies moved jobs to northern Mexico and built factories there because it was cheaper, he says. Many of those who came to work eventually moved on to the United States. Tim will show us the Eagle Mountains where the migrants travel and the cartels transport drugs. Tim believes the border fence is an example of a failed neighbourhood. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news And he wants to show us the border fence. He also carries water and a bucket of water straws and clean socks which he places in places where migrants can find them. He doesn’t care that he’s helping people who break the law by getting into the country. For Tim, it is American capitalism that is to blame for many of these people coming. Another we meet on the border, Jim Chilton, owns a ranch where the border fence stops. He has experienced that several migrants have lost their lives on his plot in the attempt to reach the American dream. He votes for Trump, but supports the work of Tim Doherty. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Conspiracy theories But it is not just from Latin America that migrants come anymore. When Joe Bilden opened up immigration again, people came from completely different parts of the world. Africa, Asia, Europe. Some of them receive temporary residence and work permits on humanitarian grounds, such as the Haitians who have moved to a small town in Ohio called Springfield. They have received a lot of attention in the election campaign after Trump mentioned them in the debate against Kamala Harris. – They eat the dogs and cats of those who live there, Trump claimed. The statement was based on a false conspiracy theory that his own vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, himself from Ohio, had helped to spread. Many of the Haitians we spoke to in Springfield had come to the United States legally by plane, and not by foot across the border – in other words, several have temporary work permits. Several news spoke to in Springfield believe that Haitians who have come there to work have been given jobs that white residents were never offered to apply for. Greg Gibson shows news a local fishing pond where he lives. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Heading down to the border In a completely different place in the USA, in North Carolina, we meet Greg Gibson. He was in Washington on January 6, 2021 when Congress was stormed. And he has started a political party that focuses on patriotism and freedom. For the past four years, Greg has spent his free time fighting against immigration. If Trump loses the election, he will probably blame it on cheating. Meet Greg Gibson, who has zero confidence in the electoral system – and who believes violence can be the solution. Like many others from semi-militant groups, he has traveled several times to the border with Mexico to document who comes across the border, and try to stop them in some cases. The border is the reason why he does not trust American politicians. He believes the Democrats will populate the US with migrants who can vote for them in the future. We did not meet any migrants in the mountains of Arizona when we were there a short time ago. Joe Biden introduced austerity measures through a presidential order earlier this year. And the number of migrants arriving illegally has fallen sharply since then. But in the last few years in the White House, Biden set an immigration record. In this tent at the border between the US and Mexico, migrants can get water and shelter. Several times a day, a border patrol stops by to see if anyone is there. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Uncertain future Miriam from Ecuador just wants a life in the USA. Maybe move on from Arizona to a state further from the border. Cities governed by Democrats have in recent years served as havens for legal migrants. Places where they were allowed to live. With food bags in his mouth and hands, Eddie ensures that both he and his friends get free food donated by a church. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Eddie from Venezuela is another migrant worker we meet. He is from Venezuela and has been here longer than Miriam. He says that his situation is complicated. He has no papers and has received a deportation order. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Miriam and Eddie’s further destinies will depend on who wins the election. If it is Trump, he plans mass deportations. If Harris wins, the migrants may feel safer. Published 03.11.2024, at 16.21
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Therefore, immigration can decide this year’s presidential election in the USA – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
