AS A BARBADIAN IMMIGRANT who lives the American dream, Adrian Mapp, mayor of Plainfield, a city of 50 000-plus in New Jersey, has made a point abundantly clear to the Donald Trump administration.
“We will not cower in fear” to unacceptable demands that cities across the land buckle under to Washington’s pressure to stop being “sanctuaries” for undocumented immigrants, was Mapp’s response when asked about Trump’s executive orders on immigration and related issues.
Thank goodness for the mayor’s intestinal fortitude. His emphatic response to the president’s high-handedness is a perfect example of what needs to be done. Any municipality that is a sanctuary city and shields undocumented foreigner-born residents from the tight grasp of US immigration authorities can lose millions of dollars in federal grants that finance essential services and spur community development. Like New York City, Newark in New Jersey, Houston, Texas and others, Plainfield is willing to say no and to pay the price.
Trump’s threat aimed at sanctuary cities is in addition to a patently unconstitutional ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries in Africa and the Middle East. Federal District judges in New York, Virginia and Seattle and an appeals court have sensibly relegated it to the constitutional deep freeze. It deserves to remain there permanently.
Several cities, state attorneys general, leading legal experts and immigration advocates share the determination to stand up to Trump, who increasingly is behaving like a national and international bully. Less than a month in office, he has angered and disappointed hundreds of millions of people at home and abroad with his threats, untrue statements about domestic and foreign issues, and his bullying tactics. Little wonder that his approval rating among the American people is the lowest for a new commander-in-chief in more than half a century.
Clearly, Trump and his advisers have, in the triumphant atmosphere spawned by his victory over Hillary Clinton in the November 8 election, misread the country’s mood. A nation of immigrants, the US thrives economically, socially and otherwise on the constant influx of people from around the world, the Caribbean included. But if the new administration should get its way, trade protectionism, “extreme vetting” of immigrants, public disagreements with staunch foreign allies and friends may become the order of the day. Instead of achieving his campaign slogan of making “America Great Again”, Trump seems bent on isolating the nation. That would be counter-productive.
Hence the need for an early course correction.
Coming after the level-headed two terms under Barack Obama in the White House, the Trump era is putting the US on a domestic collision course and on an international path of suspicion and distrust.
In an early signal, the Caribbean Community has expressed a desire to establish a working relationship with President Trump. While the region must give the administration time to settle down, CARICOM shouldn’t raise its hopes too high, at least not now.