Immigrant Internment

Kitty Calavita’s “The New Politics of Immigration: “The Balanced-Budget Conservatism” and the Symbolism of Proposition 187*“” proposes the idea that hostility toward immigration can be described as a symbol of a cultural identity crisis. Calavita focuses her writing on the balanced-budget ideology as a means of discriminating against immigrants, whereas Donald Trump chooses to focus on building a wall. Trump states, “I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” Donald Trump serves as the modern-day face of immigrant discrimination. By vowing to build a wall to keep immigrants out of the country, he is no better than those Americans during WW1 who referred to immigrants as “disloyal” and “un-American.” However, with Donald Trump being in a position to potentially become President of the United States, the stakes are higher for today’s illegal immigrants. Everyday life could even be worse than that of the immigrants living during World War 1.

Additionally, his intentional effort to mention that Mexico will be the ones paying for the wall parallels the issues brought up in Clavita’s article concerning the national budget deficit and American economic transformations, confirming a never-ending focus on monetary concerns.

However, in the end, only time will tell if Trump’s claims stay true and whether or not illegal immigrants will face similar discrimination they have in the past.