By

Tarik Kiley

I want to express serious disagreement with two of President Trump’s policies. The first is his immigration policy, and the second is his tariff policy. In my opinion, President Trump’s policy on immigration is driven by xenophobia, hatred of brown people, and racism. His tariff policies are also driven by isolationism and xenophobia.

First, arresting brown skinned people and sending them to concentration camps should, on its face, prove that he is racist, in that he is not only targeting illegal immigrants, but also any brown skinned person who appears to be Latino. He has arrested US citizens and those seeking a path to legal citizenship. If this question is about obtaining legal citizenship, why is he also targeting those working to achieve citizenship legitimately?

Also, arresting Latino people indiscriminately, subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishments, and denying them due process is not only wrong, but it also hurts the USA’s economy. Many Latino people take low-wage jobs, such as construction and agricultural work. Without these workers, essential sectors of the USA’s economy will suffer.

On another note, imposing ridiculous tariffs on imports is bad for the economy. If the question is about the USA importing less and exporting more, then the USA needs to continue developing goods the world wants to import. Currently, we export a lot of culture, and that is good for our economy. But to truly be a competitive exporter, the USA needs to diversify its economy and increase production in the 21st-century sunrise industries. Some of these industries include clean energy and robotics.

To develop the sunrise sectors of the USA’s economy, the USA needs to invest in research and development. Federal dollars could go towards supporting research universities and giving grants to graduate students, for example, who are at the forefront of technological development and innovation.

It should be evident that the USA is no longer a globally competitive producer of manufactured goods. But that is just a sign that the USA needs to change, adapt, and innovate. The goal should be a high-technology economy that adapts to the global economic landscape and invests in new technologies in a diversified manner.

Also, despite President Trump’s xenophobia, international cooperation is a good thing at times. International cooperation in space travel and agriculture is beneficial to all, for example. All countries on the globe have a potential interest in space travel, and helping disadvantaged countries feed themselves is useful and has intrinsic value.

Additionally, not only are President Trump’s immigration policies going to wreck essential sectors of the economy, potentially, but his tariff policies will only increase prices for the USA’s consumers and contribute to inflation.

This also shines a blaring light on the fact that worker poverty will increase under President Trump’s policies. Not only are prices going to rise, but it should also be noted that the minimum wage has not risen to keep up with inflationary pressure. So, the USA’s workforce will see less buying power from their dollars, and as a result lead to a lower standard of living.

I’m hoping that we will all be able to see the failings of President Trump’s economic policies. At a time like this we need more workers, not less. We need more workers to help us build the infrastructure of the 21st century. We need workers to build high speed rail, to maintain roads and bridges, and to update us with additional construction.

We also need to participate in international trade by offering the world exports that they desire to import. These should be innovative high technology exports such as robotics and clean energy. We should not be in the practice of punishing other countries for their productivity. We should raise our productivity.