Biden’s Citizenship Bill: A Calculated Risk – OpEd
After the recent US Presidential election, many people have been wondering how so many millions of Americans voted for Trump, ignoring the vicious anti-Trump campaign by sections of the media and his sworn critics. Perhaps, no other US President in the recent past has been subjected to such ridicule as Trump has to face.
Now, after the chaotic poll, if one would take a close and dispassionate look about the performance of the Trump administration, any discerning observer would arrive at the conclusion that it was not as bad as it was made to look.
The Joe Biden administration has clearly said that they would follow the China policy as evolved and implemented by Trump and it was one of the major initiatives of Trump to protect the status of the US as a world superpower.
While Trump was accused of mishandling the COVID 19 crisis, the situation has not visibly improved even now after Trump left the scene.
The development of vaccines was one of the big developments in the post Trump period and if this vaccine had been developed during Trump’s period, probably COVID 19 could have been brought under control by Trump. Biden has no particular claim on COVID management now.
Many observers think that one major reason why millions of Americans voted for Trump was due to his immigration policy. Many Americans approved of Trump’s immigration policy, clearly understanding the need to check the inflow of migrants to the USA, who come from different parts of the world with different cultural and traditional backgrounds.
It is true that America is essentially a country of migrants. However, the time has now come to check the further entry of migrants to protect the demographic structure of the USA, which has somewhat stabilized now.
By reversing the migrant policy of Trump and introducing a new US Citizenship Bill, the Biden administration is showing that it has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing, inspite of clearly knowing the divisiveness that has slowly emerged amongst the US population due the migrant policy adopted by the Obama administration and earlier. While conflicts between blacks and whites in the US is a historical one and is yet to be firmly resolved, in recent times, new conflicts are emerging such as between Asian migrants, African migrants and Americans who have been living in America for generations.
The whole world has been seeing how Western Europe is suffering now due to the huge entry of migrants and refugees from poor and Islamic countries that have caused nearly violent demographic chaos in West European countries. Many Europeans now realize that free entry to migrants in the name of humanitarian action have proved to be a disastrous exercise, causing long term conflict zones, which is likely to become worse day by day.
The Citizenship Bill being proposed by the Biden administration aims to increase the overall quota for employment based Green cards from 140,000 to 170,000 annually, that would encourage more Asians and Africans to enter the USA in the coming years. The Bill also proposes adding the unused quota of 225,000 Green Cards to those available, which would help reduce the backlog. It is reported that there are about 800,000 Indians in line in the USA, for employment based Green cards at present.
To cut the long story short, the essence of the citizenship Bill proposed by the Biden administration is to encourage and increase the migrant population in the USA. This move will open a pandora box and increase the unemployment scenario in the USA, which is already causing concern and would further result in social conflicts , shootings in public places etc., which have already become a regular affair in the USA.
Instead of thinking that the decision of Trump should be reversed for the sake of reversing, Biden should show the qualities of statesmanship and farsighted vision to take a dispassionate policy decision with an open mind.
Perhaps, it would be appropriate if Biden would conduct a referendum amongst US citizens to know what they think about his Citizenship Bill, particularly since the impact of this Bill would be irreversible.
It is quite possible that the majority of US citizens could disapprove of this proposed Bill, which could be a shock for Joe Biden but not for intelligent and discerning observers.
