GOP platform has bad news for immigrants

By Reuben S. Seguritan

August 17, 2016

The Republican Party’s platform which mirrors the vision that the party hopes to campaign on leading to the upcoming November 2016 elections has some bad news for immigrants.

Anchored on the pursuit of “Reforming the Government to Serve the People”, the GOP has sixteen major agenda that it hopes to push forward on matters of retirement security, economic growth, Medicaid and health, tax reforms and of course, immigration.

The party has acknowledged the huge contribution that immigrants have made for the American economy. “Just as immigrant labor helped build our country in the past, today’s legal immigrants are making vital contributions in every aspect of our national life. Their industry and commitment to American values strengthens our economy, enriches our culture, and enables us to better understand and more effectively compete with the rest of the world,” the platform states.

However, the platform likewise underscored that while they applaud those who go through the legal channels of immigration, they are saying that those who came here illegally undermine the benefits that legal immigrants have contributed to the country and at the same time, these undocumented immigrants threaten the safety of communities, remove jobs from US workers, and pose grave risks to the safety and the sovereignty of the United States.

Thus, their platform drumbeats the same hard line stance of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in saying that the highest priority should be in securing the rule of law  both at our borders and at ports of entry. Building the wall that they hope will counter illegal immigration is also a part of their agenda although this is nothing new since building a “wall’ was also in the Republican 2012 platform. “The double-layered fencing on the border that was enacted by Congress in 2006, but never completed, must finally be built.”

The platform promises that it will grant no amnesty to the undocumented immigrants because it rewards breaking the law and encourages more people to do the same. Instead, it promises to enforce alien e-verify programs before immigrants will be granted any kind of federal or State support or entitlements or work authorization.

Many frowns upon this platform and policy directions of the GOP saying that it has a very simplistic and black-and-white view of immigration and lacks a deep understanding of why there are illegal immigrants in the country. It has failed to recognize that for these millions of undocumented immigrants, they simply do not have a choice- they don’t have any choice but to run away from their home country either to escape persecution or gang violence, as in the cases of those trying to cross the borders from Central America or escape extreme poverty but lacks the required documented family members or skill set to be able to go through the rigorous process of legal migration.

While the document blames undocumented immigrants for taking jobs away from American workers, it has failed to provide any concrete solutions to actually provide jobs for these displaced workers.