Donald Trump has released a policy outline that would not only deport all illegal immigrants but sharply limit legal immigrants, a position that could make the Republican Party a "deportation party," according to
The Wall Street Journal.
In an editorial, the newspaper said Trump's position would mark the most radical crackdown on immigration since the 1920s.
For a start, the paper questions the plausibility of deporting the 11 million people here illegally.
"Are his police going to search from door to door to arrest 11 million people? How else will they be rounded up? Mr. Trump says he would keep families together, which would at least spare scenes of tearful mothers hauled away from their crying children," the editorial board wrote.
"But Republicans may want to think twice before becoming the party responsible for piling onto buses entire families who are stitched into the fabric of communities. This is not a good political look."
The paper suggests that Trump's plan to force Mexico to pay for the wall he plans to construct is unrealistic and that Trump himself realizes a sovereign state would not do this.
As a result, he will be relying on levying higher fines and fees on Mexicans but the plan would defy free-market principles. Trump's idea is to "impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages" sent to Mexico from the U.S., but remittances reduce the flow of illegal immigration because they reduce poverty in Central America, the paper pointed out.
He also plans to increase the wage regulations for temporary legal H-1B visas, thereby instructing private businesses how to compensate their workers.
"For a man who has succeeded in business, Mr. Trump seems to know little about labor markets. Thousands of U.S. employers depend on the flow of temporary seasonal workers. Mr. Trump seems to think that if those workers aren't allowed to enter the U.S. employers will simply raise wages," the Journal said.
"But the Journal reported last week that crops across the West are rotting in the fields for lack of farmhands, despite offers of $17 an hour with benefits for U.S. workers. A Guatemalan picking strawberries in Washington state doesn't mean a native-born worker has lost a job."
The Journal said that the most likely result of a U.S. immigration standstill is the moving of factories, businesses, and farms overseas where labor is cheaper.
"If reducing illegal immigration is the objective, then Republicans should favor flexible guest-worker programs that make it easier for foreign-workers of all skill levels to enter and work in the U.S. The more such opportunities there are, the less incentive there is to come illegally," the Journal said.
The Journal said that Trump's real goal is to reduce even legal immigration and put "a pause" on all immigration for an unspecified period, but that would not have the intended effect of raising wages. Instead, wages are stagnant because of slow growth and misguided economic policies.
"The good news in all of this is that Mr. Trump's radicalism may finally smoke out a real immigration debate within the GOP … Now we'll see how many join Mr. Trump in calling for mass deportation and walling off America to all newcomers," the Journal said.
"The last time Republicans tried this, in the 1920s, they alienated immigrant groups like the Irish and Italians for decades until Ronald Reagan won them back. If they want to lose in 2016, they'll follow Trump's anti-immigrant siren."
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