America is faced with a border crisis and massive illegal immigration, the threat of Chinese imperialism, the destruction of the American working class due to globalism and open borders, and an onslaught of anti-racism for anyone who tries to solve these problems. Perhaps all four have the same solution: Make the Americas Great Again.
The Scourge of Globalism
When former President Donald Trump first ran for office, he brought attention to burning problems no one in the establishment of either party wanted to address: illegal immigration, China, and the death of the American middle class due to globalism. By naming these problems, he created another problem for himself: being branded a racist.
All these issues boil down to globalism, which is not the same as global free trade. Globalism is an ideology that mixes key elements of communism and fascism into one package: the war against the nation-state combined with massive corporations who do the bidding of politicians. And no one has exploited globalism more cynically for imperialistic purposes than China.
Bring Back Jobs
Our problem with China is that they have an almost endless supply of cheap labor that outcompetes American workers while cheating incessantly. These low-paying manual labor jobs cannot be brought back to the U.S. without greatly increasing the cost to American consumers. Even if one nation chooses to do this through massive tariffs, it still does not stop China from gobbling up the rest of the world.
What if those cheap jobs could be taken out of China and brought back to Latin America instead? The result would be to continue to have access to affordable products while hurting China economically and helping our southern neighbors economically – and addressing one of the root reasons for illegal immigration as well.
Opportunity Zones
Fortunately, there exists a way to address all these problems with one solution: opportunity zones for Latin American workers. Such an adequately fenced zone can be created inside the U.S. – in Texas near the border, for instance – and any Central or South American country that wishes to participate in the program.
They can produce any goods that aren’t competitive in the U.S. due to low wages. The zones would be open to investors and under the direct supervision and protection of the U.S. government. Why buy cheap clothes and goods from China when they can be purchased from our closest neighbors?
The result could be to bring back millions of jobs from China and use them to stop illegal immigration to the U.S. by bringing the benefits of capitalism to Latin America.
The Wall
The proceeds from such zones could, in part, go to financing the completion of the border wall. Furthermore, the zones are perfect filters for identifying the best and most talented workers. The U.S. will always allow a certain amount of immigration from other countries. Why not use the zones as a vetting mechanism? Some green cards could be earmarked for the most law-abiding, hardworking, and talented people in this program.
Perhaps most importantly, what would the critics say? They can’t claim that giving opportunities to Mexicans and Hondurans is racist. They can’t complain about the wages being too low because they are fine with slave labor in China. Nor can they whine about stealing jobs from American workers because the program brings jobs to Latin America that have already been lost to China.
The opportunity zones give all the advantages of free trade while protecting American workers from competition from illegal immigrants. It’s win-win-win-win all the way. Who can be against that?
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Read more from Caroline Adana.
