The comparison between the policies of the two presidents highlights the enormous importance of the immigration issue in the United States. And the abysmal difference with the debate in our latitudes. The exemplary story of Trump's grandfather, expelled from Germany and escaped from American re-education camps
In his first four days in office, Donald Trump has focused heavily on the immigration issue . Perhaps the most heartfelt issue, together with work and economic well-being , of the millions of deep-rooted Americans who re-elected him to the White House. Certainly the easiest issue to ride and flaunt in numerical results even after a few hours in office. Taking advantage of the enthusiasm and the megaphone effect, Trump has skillfully overshadowed the general data on repatriations . And the general data say that the previous Biden administration, despite the completely opposite narrative, has set the ten-year record of expulsions of illegal immigrants from American territory.
We are talking about a total of 270,000 expulsions in 2024 (a ten-year record) and 113,400 arrests, for an average of 310 per day. For comparison, this Thursday in the United States some 538 illegal immigrants were arrested, followed by another 593 on Friday. Of these, 286 were returned to Guatemala aboard three state flights. A similar flow, which also met with the usual cooperation of Mexico, beyond the propaganda. Biden's results are higher than those of Trump during his first term, but lower than the deportations carried out during Barack Obama 's first term .
Almost as if to suggest a gradual decline. Trump's desired operation is obviously still in its infancy and we do not know how it will evolve and to what extent it will surpass the policy of his predecessor. The tycoon has introduced major innovations such as the strengthening of forces at the border and a powerful blockade of entries from the south. The comparison with Biden is, however, a pretext to illustrate how the debate on immigration in the United States is light years away from ours.
Trump vs. Biden: Similar Numbers, Different Narratives
Everything has been played and is played, therefore, on the narrative level. Biden has worked to not flaunt the sensational results of the campaign of expulsion of illegal migrants. Trump the opposite. The opposing rhetoric of the two presidents corresponds to two distinct visions, at the time shared by the US apparatus, that is, by the authentic architects of the politics and actions of the United States at home and in the world. Unlike Biden, Trump proposes an anti-imperial recipe , which in the long run will not be able to survive the strategic objectives of the United States. It is no coincidence that a president lasts four years, the high bureaucrats and parliamentarians much longer.
An empire imports massively and uses immigrants as a necessary force not for work and the economy, but for the army. In great powers like the United States, immigrants are necessary to keep the population young and violent . Because it is the young who make war. And America has been waging war incessantly since the 19th century, as an existential characteristic that has allowed it to control the seas and create globalization, controlling Europe and the ocean straits of the planet. Although the ongoing conflicts are fought by Washington not directly, but by proxy, the US maintains military bases and naval presence in half the world. To do this, it needs soldiers and officers.
Eight years ago, Trump's recipe, made of duties on European partners and opening to Russia, was not well received by the majority of the apparatuses, from the CIA to the Pentagon to the very powerful Congress . Today, with two large-scale wars underway on the borders of the globalized West, things have changed. The Trump doctrine has proved useful in easing the too many open fronts and restoring internal cohesion in the US, tired and worn out by social divisions, fentanyl and woke flare-ups .
Assimilation versus integration
Without going into too much detail, it is important to be clear about the difference between countries that assimilate foreigners and countries that integrate them. In the latter, immigrants are welcomed temporarily, as long as they are useful to improving the economy and working as "outsiders" for the state. In the first case, typical of imperial powers such as the USA, immigrants are instead "nationalized" , that is, "Americanized", stripped of their language and their original belonging. A fundamental move to ensure that every soldier and every citizen does not turn their back on their fellow countrymen and the interests of the country.
Especially in war, with rifle in hand. The United States realized this bitterly at the beginning of the twentieth century, before intervening in the First World War against Germany . The first ethnic group of the country had become, and still is today, Germanic. German ancestors surpassed (and surpass) the English ones. But the Germans at the beginning of the twentieth century remained faithful to Berlin, so much so that in some cities they publicly celebrated the Kaiser's birthday. A massive work of Americanization was necessary , carried out in the concentration camps . Yes, the ones that the Germans themselves would later use to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Camps that the English first invented, during the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa.
The Story of Trump's Grandfather, Deported from Germany and Escaped from American Camps
Donald Trump's grandfather also ended up in one of these re-education camps. A story that is as well-known in the US as it is in the rest of the world, by now. In the vast majority of cases, however, the tendency is to emphasize the fact that Friedrich Trumpf , later nationalized as Frederick Trump , had been expelled from Germany for desertion. A way to emphasize (with presumption) that the current American president must be mindful of his grandfather's experience as a deportee and soften his anti-immigration policies. For consistency, that is.
The most interesting aspect of Trump's grandfather's story is perhaps the fact that he escaped from the Americanization camp where he had been locked up because he was German. And he succeeded by pretending to be Swedish . And then he tried to return to Germany, without success. Clearly demonstrating that he did not feel American, like hundreds of thousands of people who emigrated from Europe to the US at the time. The moral of the story, if there is one, is general. And it tells us that the United States has succeeded in making the children of foreign immigrants, the so-called second generations , Americans . A mechanism that has led them to become the global superpower. But which seems to jam when it comes to Mexico.
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