At church, Trump stirs up tensions among black immigrants. Are Democrats ready to respond?

If you listened closely during Donald Trump’s recent visit to a “black” church in Detroit, you could have heard whispers concerning the ghosts of the political past.

“They are attacking your jobs,” Trump said. “People crossing the border – all these millions of people – are causing enormous harm to our black population and our Latino population.”

Trump’s dire warning was not a brand new claim, however it has been repeated across political eras, sometimes even by Democrats themselves. After all, President Bill Clinton signed a law in 1996 that made it easier to deport more immigrants while narrowing the trail to legal immigration.

For many Black Americans, this remains to be not the case – for them, immigrants are their allies, exploited by similar economic systems designed to marginalize the “other.” But for other groups of voters within the broader Black community, even when it isn’t politically correct to say it out loud, Trump’s claim about competition from immigrants could also be attractive.

For these voters, immigrants – most frequently Latino immigrants – are allegedly the explanation why Black Americans lose their jobs and are marginalized within the very country they helped construct with their sweat and blood. For them, while immigrants began to pursue the American dream, sometimes called “hard workers,” black Americans were trampled on as they climbed the ladder of racial and social caste. If immigrants didn’t take jobs, they not less than sometimes clashed culturally.

So whose interpretation is true?

The query of whether immigrants are “taking” jobs and opportunities from Black Americans is a sensitive one for advocacy groups and a few political circles since the answer requires nuance.

The American Immigration Council argues that there isn’t a significant correlation between high levels of immigration and high unemployment among black Americans because immigrants often play complementary roles within the labor market. These are positions requiring lower qualifications, which opens the best way for native employees to perform better-paid positions. However, in an article within the journal “Beyond conflict and competition”, authors Chrisshonna Grant Nieva, Laura Pulido and Nathan J. Sessoms explain the next:

In short, the reply will depend on your occupation and level of education.

This research shows us that policy frameworks for “immigrant competition” must acknowledge complexity, otherwise they may appear to disregard the true experiences of some people. For those that want easy answers, heroes and scapegoats, the above explanation doesn’t satisfy either side of the talk.

But that does not imply Democrats should avoid it.

Doing so only strengthens the case as an efficient tool for the Republican Party. Look no further than the handfuls of immigrants bused into predominantly black Chicago neighborhoods to sow deep resentment among residents.

“Our particular frustration is with the continued and blatant disregard for the safety and overall quality of life of Black residents, as many of these migrants have been abandoned in our neighborhoods with no plan in place to monitor and house them long-term,” she said. Natasha Dunn, Chicago resident, quoted on Fox News article regarding a housing plan that assumed the location of migrants in a close-by abandoned school.

And speaking of Fox News, one seek for “Black” and “migrants” yields quite a few articles portraying immigrants as a threat to the Black community. Somehow, the identical right-wing media brands that disparage and demonize the Black Lives Matter movement, DEI, racial justice efforts, and America’s first Black president are concerned concerning the well-being and pain of Black communities.

The most astute media consumers can spot contradictions. But others won’t care concerning the source of the news. It also doesn’t negate the concerns of Black Americans, especially in the event that they live in swing states where each vote could make or break the consequence of an election.

Democrats tend to lump essentially the most racially and ethnically diverse communities under one big electoral tent, with Black and Latino voters (including Black Latinos/Latinos) being a part of their electoral coalition. For Democrats to counter Trump’s attacks on them as a celebration out of touch with immigration on the expense of the Black community, they should have a transparent explanation of how the concerns of immigrant communities align with Black American communities.

They must even be prepared to tell the story of how these groups formed the coalition.

Just as Black Americans aren’t a monolith, immigrants to America, especially Latino immigrants, who come from over 20 countries, aren’t a monolith, speak different languages, and belong to different races.

In cities like New York within the Sixties, Black American and Puerto Rican immigrant communities fought side by side for his or her civil rights, with groups just like the Black Panthers and Young Lords demanding healthcare, education and an end to exploitation. Even though Puerto Rican migrants are American residents, there are still lessons to be learned from cross-cultural cooperation (and sometimes tension).

What was it about their situation that made them even closer? Some scholars say the concept of “connected fate” convinced these communities to work in partnership.

Differences in immigrant nationalities (Mexican, Cuban, Jamaican, Dominican), race (black, white, Asian, mixed race), and geography (West Coast vs. Northeast vs. American South vs. Midwest) mix to create different responses to narratives about rivalry between immigrants and ethnic groups across the country. Democrats should tailor their immigration messaging and never treat all voters the identical.

Democrats even have a number of work to do in countering Trump’s claims to be the champion of Black America: his death wish for the Central Park Five; his claim of “very good people on both sides” after neo-Nazi marches; confirmed contempt for black employees; threats of military motion against BLM protesters; the initiation of the birth movement; and his “shithole countries” comment, which deemed people from majority-black countries unworthy of immigrants.

But it isn’t enough to pull out Kanye and say, “Donald Trump doesn’t care about black people.” Democrats must show how policies actively reveal concern for the economic and private well-being of Black people. They have loads of work to do, from child tax credits and prescription drug caps to student loan forgiveness.

However, when it comes to immigration, messages need to be more direct and targeted. They should remind the general public that President Biden is on his first day in office proposed immigration reformAmerican Citizenship Act of 2021. The bill was rejected by Republicans and had no probability with a Senate filibuster.

Democrats should explain how they crafted a bipartisan immigration bill that might address essentially the most pressing points of the crisis, but Trump advised against passing it, largely to prevent a legislative victory for Biden. They also needs to reveal why the party believes that immigration is legal improves the general economy for all Americans, and although immigration has been broken under Democratic and Republican presidents, they’ve a plan to fix it.

But most significantly, Democrats must clarify that Black Americans is not going to be left behind of their vision for America and the long run in 2025. Because for these voters, being prioritized is mandatory, not optional.

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