Ejecting huddled masses

AFTER AN attack on two US National Guard members which resulted in the death of Sarah Beckstrom, US President Donald Trump announced plans to permanently pause migration from all Third World countries, "to allow the US system to recover."

The National Guard members were part of a 2,000-strong deployment to Washington DC to address crime concerns.

Fuelling the public response to the killing is the identity of the alleged perpetrator, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who worked with the CIA in Afghanistan as a GPS tracker specialist.

An estimated 190,000 Afghans went to America following the 2021 military withdrawal under the Operation Allies Welcome resettlement programme.

The Trump administration immediately suspended the processing of all immigration requests from Afghan citizens.

Mr Trump's announcement is only the most recent effort by the sitting US president to decisively reject the promise to migrants inscribed on a tablet on the Statue of Liberty, which encourages migrants with the words, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

The implication of Mr Trump's increasingly hardline approach to migrants, both resident and hopeful, is blunter than the euphemisms "voluntary deportation" and "reverse migration." They might be summed up more clearly as "get out."

By August, there were more than two million immigrants awaiting asylum decisions or hearings.

In June, the White House issued a formal proclamation restricting entry of foreign nationals from 19 countries to protect US citizens from terrorist attacks and public safety threats. On that list, and close to home, are Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joseph Edlow will execute Mr Trump's order to rigorously re-examine every Green Card issued to an alien migrant from a country of concern. From there who knows?

Migration has shaped modern America, long considered a melting pot of races, cultures and perspectives.

Half of the Fortune 500 was either founded by immigrants or their children. One quarter of US billion-dollar start-ups were founded by a migrant student who found a business opportunity in America.

Business studies attest to the invigoration that economies experience when their workforce is refreshed through open migrant policies.

The recent increase in the application fee for H-1B visas to US$100,000 severely limits the ability of American businesses to hire migrants. Promising graduates from other countries probably won't find their first jobs in America.

Mr Trump and his colleagues in power appear to want a country – a reshaped empire – that is appealingly homogeneous in character, in which women know their place and governance, including open seas murder, is achieved by edict, not through consensus.

By trading diversity for divisiveness, acceptance for isolationism and welcome for witch-hunts, the Trump administration is shaping an America that wilfully cripples its strengths in ways that will linger for decades to come.