The Shutdown

Politics are a daily part of life for us, as US citizens. No matter how hard you try, if you go online or read the newspaper, you inevitably will encounter at least a dozen articles about the president, or congress, or a new court case. Politics has to do with governance and our governing powers. so, in the US, when we talk about politics, we are talking about our three branches, the Judiciary, Executive and Legislative branches. The Executive branch of the Government is all about the president, vice president, and like powers. The Legislative is another word for Congress- so, the House and the Senate, and the Judiciary branch is generally in reference to our supreme court, but that trickles down to courts in a state and district/local level. This week, actually, this past month the politically hot topic has been the government shutdown. Everyone knows that our government is shut down, but a lot of people don’t know why, or what it means. In order to understand this shutdown, we have to rewind and have a bit of a history lesson. The United States is a melting pot for cultures, there’s no question about that. People from literally all over the world have been immigrating in and out of the United States since the beginning of time. In fact, the only people who actually belong here are the Native American people. The rest of our ancestors either immigrated here by choice, were brought here, or came here seeking amnesty. There’s no way, as someone from a big city, for me to not know or be close with someone who’s even a first generation immigrant. However, a rise in illegal immigration, as well as a refugee crisis, along with a long long history of immigrants and non-white members of society being blamed for issues that aren’t existent or there’s immigration is a hot topic,  especially within the presidency. A widely held commonplace among conservatives is the fear that immigrants are coming into our country, taking jobs, increasing crime, and essentially the downfall of our country. However, whereas it is the truth that undocumented immigrants cost taxpayers money, there’s more to that story. Firstly, studies show- like this one- prove that the correlation between foreigners and citizens being unemployed is nonexistent. That is, illegal immigrants are just as prone to be unemployed as we are, and their subsequent employment doesn’t affect our unemployment. In fact, many of these under the table jobs are ones natives wouldn’t want to and don’t do. Immigrants contribute to our economy because they often do jobs that others won’t do, for a margin of a cost. Nonetheless, the conservative agenda often paints a picture of immigrants, specifically those from Mexico, and refugees,  specifically those from the middle east, as criminals, cheaters, and ignorant. There is an idea that they only want to come to our country to wreak havoc, but what is not understood by many is the fact that many, many people are facing horrific political corruptness, natural disaster, criminal acts of war, gang violence, and more in their home countries. It is so unsafe that they would much rather risk entering a country that doesn’t open them with welcome arms than to stay another moment in a warzone. Ultimately, this is all relevant information to the discussion of the shutdown. Since President Trump took office, and even before, there was a promise of a “wall” to “keep them out.” Trump has been rooting for a wall that would make it impossible for people to illegally enter the country (or “impossible, rather). At first, he claimed Mexico would pay for the wall, which was obviously irrational. After his election into office, the idea of this wall was brought into question. It was dead in the water for a while, and while other refugee/immigrant-related things, like his revoking of DACA were very real, the wall never seemed like it would happen. However, toward the end of 2018, Trump allowed extreme measures to be taken against illegal immigrants. He allowed families to be separated, and this behavior led to the death of a child. The talk of the wall came back. No one knows how or who will fund it. Congress wants nothing to do with it (the house that is). No fiscal decision on the wall could be made, and therefore, the government was shut down. So what does this mean? All non-essential government functions (state parks, Smithsonian, etc) are shut down, and hundreds of thousands of government workers are furloughed, or working without pay. Until some decision about the upcoming fiscal year, and budgeting that pleases all of congress and the president can be made, the government will remain shut down.