Merit System

I agree with Long Kieu's article Blog Stage #7: Trump's New Immigration Policy about President Trump’s visa policy. In my previous blog post “Trump vs. Foreign Students,” I discussed the consequences of the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order that would be brought upon aspiring students outside of the United States. I expressed my disapproval on the order that would select only skilled immigrants with high salaries to give visas to.

Similarly, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is essentially a merit-based point system in which the applicants with the highest points are granted a visa in the United States. With this act, applicants are awarded points according to their age, education, occupation, work experience, and language skills; they must have at least 30 points in order to even apply.

According to the American Immigration Council, “Priority is given to prime working ages. Someone aged 18 through 21 gets six points, ages 22 through 25 gets eight points and ages 26 through 30 get 10 points. The points then decrease, with someone aged 31 through 35 getting eight points, 36 through 40 getting six points, ages 41 through 45 getting four points and ages 46 through 50 getting two points.” This is age discrimination; people who are young or old are not “fit” for the society. America is not a perfect society, nor are we trying to make everyone perfect. Certainly, people are not “better” just because they are in their prime age. There are many people who are in their late 20s and early 30s who are unemployed and unmotivated.

Additionally, this system sounds similar to the college admissions process in America. Applicants who have more on their resume, more to show to the admissions office have a higher probability of getting into their desired college. I believe that granting visas to immigrants should not become a competition, as it certainly will if people will be crushing each other to earn as many points as possible. We take pride in a nation that welcomes immigrants and is the Land of Opportunity. How can we claim that we are such a nation if we discriminate people from opportunities based on their merits?

Trump vs. Foreign Students

Under Trump, the reputation of America as being the land of opportunity for college students, both domestic and international, is slowly dying. As of now, America remains as one of the top destinations for international students in the world, with over 1 million students. American universities have amazing research opportunities and hold prestige throughout the world, making the country an attractive place to get an education, even if it means making financial and personal sacrifices.

When making the decision to come to the United States for college, international students have to take into consideration the necessity of obtaining a work visa after graduation in order to stay in America. In previous years, the H-1B visa program gave college graduates an opportunity to gain a work visa by a lottery of around 200,000 applicants. However, Trump’s recently signed “Buy American, Hire American” executive order has the potential to change the current system. While Trump’s order doesn’t literally change the H-1B program, it orders Departments of Labor, Justice, Homeland Security and State to propose revisions to the current visa system-one popular suggestion is to select only skilled immigrants with high salaries of about $100,000. This means that overseas college graduates may only be considered for one of the 85,000 work visas if they are able to get a salary of over $100,000.

In addition, Trump’s anti-immigration stance has also influenced a current Department of Homeland Security proposal. The proposal would necessitate annual applications for overseas students for permission to live in America. Right now, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program under the Department of Homeland Security enables college officials to endorse overseas students. Under the new proposal, the one-time fee of $200 and one submission of paperwork would turn into $800 (assuming the student has an average 4-year university experience) and constant resubmission of paperwork. Foreign students already face more financial fees and paperwork than domestic students, so this proposal makes studying in America more tedious and costly than before.

Trump’s distrust of immigrants has led to government policies and proposals that make America a less-appealing nation to get a college degree for international students. It’s a shame that with one President, many American dreams of studying in the U.S. are being tossed aside.

Free Contraceptives For The Win!

On July 27, 2017, Kelly La published an article called Contraceptive Controversy. She supported the government eliminating contraceptives as covered by health insurance for women. She justified this termination by arguing that contraceptives should be paid by the users themselves, rather than covering it through health insurance, which makes this form of protection inexpensive or even free. She implied that everyone was paying more in taxes due to these free contraceptives. In addition, she mentioned that sex is a choice made by the individual him or herself, and the individual must be held responsible for the consequences thereafter.

These are valid arguments, however, I believe that contraceptives should remain under health insurance for women. Contraception means lower rates of abortion and lower costs to taxpayers. According to the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, “Nearly half of the more than 6 million pregnancies that occur each year are unintended, and about 43% of them end in abortion. Further, about 1 million births are unintended, costing U.S. taxpayers about $11 billion a year in associated expenses.” While it may not seem like it upfront, making contraceptives readily available and cost-free actually lowers costs for “everyone paying for it in their taxes” because there will be fewer accidental pregnancies and births.

In addition, there are health benefits to birth control. According to the Health and Human Services, birth control can reduce the risk of cancer in women and regularly treats conditions like endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, uterine fibroids, and heavy menstrual bleeding. Women are given power through contraceptives: the power to control their lives as they please.

Conservatives today call for “fewer abortions and more self-sufficient citizens.” Their core beliefs don’t align with their actions, and it’s mainly because they want to tell women what to do.

Conservatives like Rick Santorum believe contraceptives allow people to have sex without being punished for it. People make mistakes, and rather than punishing them for it, the government should be aiding them in getting back up and not making the same error again.

Not So Fun Anymore

North Korea has always been the butt of a joke. Even The Interview was never taken seriously, and with its release in 2014, the movie was also labelled as a Comedy. North Korea’s warnings follow the same pattern: they threaten war, and North Korea always crawls back into its hole when other countries toss back a first-aid kit. Recently, however, the entire world has been tip-toeing around North Korea upon the news of its first successful Intercontinental Ballistic Missile test. Ever since then, the growing silence is deafening; when will North Korea make its next move?

It’s quite ironic and of course, an obvious plan, that North Korea chose the Fourth of July to launch the ICBM, implying many things- including serious new threats against United States’ national security. According to The Washington Post, Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be able to produce a reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM program sometime in 2018.” This means that within a year, the prototype will be on assembly lines in North Korea, smoothly shaving off a good two years of researching and testing that the United States had predicted. While the missile only travelled about 580 miles, its maximum range lies around 4,160 miles, posing a real danger to all of Alaska...and soon the mainland.

With North Korea’s provocative move in mind, the United States’ government and President Trump should start by avoiding the temptation to do nothing and remain ignorant. Clearly, an immediate military response is foolish, considering the possibility of failure and an eventual nuclear war is high. Yet it is also no longer the time to sit back and laugh at our phone screens. However pessimistic this sounds, the next time we look up, we very well may be nose to nose with a nuclear-tipped missile.

Jared Kushner Under Fire...or Fired?

On July 22, 2017, Nicholas Kristof from The New York Times published an editorial called Jared Kushner’s Got Too Many Secrets To Keep Ours. In this article, Kristof calls for the Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to be removed as senior advisor to the President. While there is no concrete evidence of Kushner’s wrongdoings, Kristof argues that someone under heavy investigation for possible felonies and collusion from Russia should not be serving as a top official in the White House. Who can trust an official under investigation? Kristof implies that Kushner cannot be so easily cleared through security, especially as someone with access to America’s top confidential information, just because he is a member of the White House family.

Kristof emphasizes the possible felonies that Kushner may have committed- failing to close a meeting on government forms, setting up a secret communications channel with Kremlin, etc. Even some Republicans, specifically Bill Flores, have been calling for not only Kushner and Ivanka’s removal, but also all of President Trump’s other children as well. With Trump persistently standing with Vladimir Putin, suspicions about the President and Russia are growing as well. Kristof finally brings attention to the security risk of keeping Kushner in the White House.

Kristof continually references reports of The Washington Post and once of The Guardian, two reliable sources of news media. As a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and The New York Times columnist for over a decade, Kristof has shown his skill and credibility as a writer. All in all, I agree with Kristof on his suspicions of relations between the President, Kushner, and Russia. With multiple concessions, Kristof has demonstrated that he has considered all points of the subject, and thereafter come to the conclusion: “it’s time for Kushner to find another job.”

A Game That's Not So Fun Anymore...

On July 15, 2017, Maureen Dowd from The New York Times published an editorial called Game of Trump. In this article, Dowd criticizes the “Trump saga,” the controversial series of events that surround the very person we call our President- Donald Trump. She relates the ideals of Trump to the Game of Thrones character Littlefinger’s philosophy: “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.” In doing so, she effectively calls Trump out on creating a mess in the country, yet instead of repenting, thriving on the disorder. Funny enough, we used to turn on the “Game of Trump” to distract ourselves from our problems, but what happens now that this game is becoming more and more like reality, a dark reality?

Dowd emphasizes this dark pit that our country has fallen into and brings the attention of her readers- the American public. Dowd boldly stresses the need for the American public to start paying attention to the laughable messes that President Trump has created. Of all people, Trump’s son himself readily revealed that “he gleefully met with Russians to collect dirt on Hillary Clinton.” While Donald Jr. may have gotten “nothing” from the meeting, he clearly brought on his own downfall, not realizing his improper behavior in the first place. This certainly wasn’t the last of improper behavior, as Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz responded with derogatory terms and threats to an email requesting him to resign.

Dowd wrote all of this information, repetitively referring to multiple other news media sources such as Washington Post, Yahoo News, and the Daily Beast. As a receiver of the Pulitzer Prize and her references to multiple sources and events, Dowd shows she is well-informed on the current political matters, thus proving her credibility to be able to critique Trump. All in all, I am thoroughly convinced and agree with Dowd. Dowd effectively exposes all of Trump’s lies and tells the American public to stop deluding themselves into hoping for a good ending.

Give your information to who?

ABC News published an article called Some Voters Unregistering After Trump Administration's Data Requests on July 14, 2017. The article emphasizes the mass number of alarmed voters that are attempting to unregister themselves from state voter rolls, as a result of President Donald Trump’s commission request for “confidential” voter data. The commission requested officials for “publicly-available” voter roll data, however, is also asking for more sensitive information including dates of birth, last four digits of SSN, and voter history status. As many as 3,394 voters in Colorado left the rolls and more than 200 voters sent in requests to remove their information in both Iowa and Vermont.

 

I recommend this article, as it addresses the growing lack of trust between the general public and the U.S. national government. Trust is the foundation of building connections with the people, understanding their problems, and working to better the country. In addition, this article may help citizens to understand and reduce their concerns. While the commission did in fact ask for information, nearly half of the states have refused to comply, or release information only on public records.