Fortress America
Dan Hubig © 1982
Donald Trump wants to build a wall to protect us, a BIG wall. Donald Trump wants to put a lid on immigration. Donald Trump wants to deport 11 million people. Donald Trump wants to disassociate the United States from our NATO obligations. Donald Trump wants to make sure that we don't step on Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's little toes. And most of all, Donald Trump will prevent any more Kenyans from becoming president or "liars" to become Secretary of State. Donald Trump sees dark clouds gathering, terrorists lurking around every corner, the unwashed masses gathering at the doorstep. It's time to pull in and protect ourselves. We've never been under such continual attack, right?
Wrong.
Here are some actual facts about immigration.
- We were, and we are still, a nation of immigrants. There are 42 million immigrants in the U.S. (both authorized and unauthorized). If you add in their U.S.-born children, they are 26% of the total population of the United States.
- Currently the leading country of origin for immigrants is India, followed by China, then Mexico.
- 47% of all immigrants are naturalized. Of the remaining unauthorized immigrants, 71% are from Mexico and Latin America, 14% from Asia, 5% from Africa and the Caribbean, and 4% from Europe.
- In 2014, 17.5 million children age 18 and younger lived with at least one immigrant parent. They accounted for 25% of the 69.9 million children under age 18 in the United States.
- Of the unauthorized immigrants (adults) 29% have at least one college degree, while in the U.S. populace it's 30%.
- More Mexican immigrants are in the U.S. workforce (69%) than immigrants in general are (66%). In the U.S., the native-born population has a workforce participation of 62%.
- 80% of immigrants have health insurance (53% private insurers, 27% public).
- The number of immigrants in the U.S. has increased dramatically from 1970 (after the abolition of the National Origin Quota Act), from 10 million in 1960 to 42 million today.
- Historically, though, as a percentage of the U.S. population it's only gone up from just under 10% in 1850 to 13.3% now. The highest number was 14.7% in 1910 and the lowest was 4.7% in 1970.
- Around 600,000 foreign-born people living in the U.S. either return or are deported each year.
Statistics in this story from Migration Policy Institute, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Wikipedia.
I discontinued the syndication of my political drawings some 30 years ago .... however, it's surprising (and depressing) to me to see how many of those images remain relevant. So, as a signpost to the future, this was a bit of the past.
© Dan Hubig, 2016
Dan Hubig is an illustrator and street photographer who lives in San Francisco, California.