A few days ago, I was in the United States and watched the intense political debate in this great country that would-be nominee Donald Trump wants to “Make Great Again.” Many people are surprised that this charismatic multimillionaire is leading the polls to win the nomination of the Republican Party as presidential candidate. This should not be so surprising. Many Americans are worried about the loss of luster of the American dream during the Obama administration.
A tangible illustration is the country’s infrastructure, which used to be the best in the world. For instance, the La Guardia Airport in New York looks like a third-world facility; and there is the scarce maintenance of some roads, bridges and highways that used to be an example of cleanliness and cutting-edge design. Nowadays, we have to go to China, Singapore, Spain or England to find first-world infrastructure. Europe and China spend up to 9% of their GDP in infrastructure, while the USA only spends 2.4%. A few years ago, this was unthinkable in this great country.
Another of Trump’s themes that triggered a great national debate was the immigration policy. According to 2005 statistics, there are eleven million illegal immigrants in the U.S., though current estimates at least double that figure. This creates many financial problems for the federal government and takes employment opportunities away from African-American citizens, Hispanics who are legal citizens, the white working class and Americans at large.
It is clear that the great informality and lack of control in this aspect of life in the USA is creating huge problems in American society.
Like the female version of Aldo Mariátegui, the USA’s Ann Coulter, writes in her latest book Adios, America!, “Sending undesirable immigrants to an enemy nation is a war tactic, such as, in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter idiotically offered to take any Cubans who wanted to come to America and Fidel Castro responded by emptying Cuba’s prisons and mental institutions onto the Mariel boatlift. Today, immigration is again being used as a war technique by America’s enemies: the Democrats… Third World illegal immigration is a win-win for the Left. They can instruct immigrants on hating the country, turn them into citizens who vote for them and get their housework done at the same time!”
Regardless of how harsh and confrontational the analysis of this conservative writer may be, it is clear that the American immigration policy has failed because it is easier for an illegal immigrant with a criminal record to live and work (commit crimes) in the USA than to obtain legal citizenship for a bright and correct foreign student who graduated from Harvard with honors. In this and other topics, Trump’s campaign has touched a very sensitive nerve that traditional politicians, including the Republicans, did not have the courage to face.
Every country must have an intelligent immigration policy that attracts the best such as Canada and Australia. We are still in time to design a healthy immigration policy in Peru that contributes to our development. We will attract immigration as we progress. Let us do it in a way that favors us by attracting the best brains, the best entrepreneurs and any decent person who wants to help Peru become a first world country.