Lake Front Media

By Chloe M. Brown

SAN ANTONIO—On Jan. 31, President Trump made his State of the Union Address where he took time to talk about chain migration. The issue of immigration has always been a platform for President Trump; this comes as no surprise to anyone who watched his rallies with supporters shouting “Build a wall” or who heard any of the derogatory terms he used during his campaign.

However, this is not another fake news article to talk about how disliked the president is when it comes to immigration reform. There seems to be a complete disregard for the truth when President Trump talks about chain migration.

So, let’s clear the air. When he began mentioning chain migration, there was a sense of dissatisfaction. The crowd started booing him; this is a crowd of representatives and senators and the majority of them booed at the president. These are people who have worked hard to get in their position only to have a reality star, who knows little to nothing about immigration reform, dedicate at least 15 minutes of his speech to it.

Chain migration is a term used to refer to migrants from a particular place that could follow other migrants to their designation. This term started in the 1960s as a term for demographers to identify this social process of migrations patterns, but the way it was used in the State of Union address refers to immigration to the United States based on the family ties already in the states. The reason that these ideas have been lumped together is because of the limited knowledge the president has regarding immigration. In his speech, he states that once a person migrates to America then they can bring everyone in their family from spouses to distance cousins.

Not only is that an incorrect statement, but it’s directing all the blame on the citizens and not the government itself. When a person legally migrates to America they can only take their spouse and their children. This is only after they become legal citizens. Once becoming an American citizen, people can sponsor their family to come to America like their parents or their siblings; however, sponsoring someone to come to America legally can take from 10 to 15 years to process. A blatant lie discredits his whole statement on the subject.

However, people cannot disregard the president’s every word. It becomes an issue when the people of America put more effort into researching a topic than their president.

People can know what the issues are by following up with local town hall meetings or calling up their senators and representatives. Calling up a legislator might not seem like it works, yet when enough people call; it does make the difference.

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