Cartoon: The Immigration Deal


Political discourse in the U.S. has become difficult, if not impossible, because right-wing views are so completely untethered from reality. I’m not saying left-wingers are immune to this – we’re not – but on the left it’s not as extreme or as common amongst the highest Democrats.

And one of the biggest examples of this is the widespread belief that immigration is harmful, despite near-universal agreement among economists that immigration is not just helpful but crucial for the U.S. economy. Diana Roy writes:

Trump has made illegal immigration the focus of his campaign, promising to launch an aggressive crackdown that includes carrying out the “largest domestic deportation operation” of undocumented immigrants in U.S. history. Some experts, however, say that such an operation would inflict heavy economic costs. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates [PDF] that the deportation of between 1.3 and 8.3 million undocumented immigrants would reduce U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) by up to 7 percent by 2028, as well as significantly decrease U.S. employment, increase inflation, and drive down demand.

On deportation, like in so many areas, we just have to hope that Trump’s general incompetence will come to our rescue by preventing him from achieving his policy goals.


I don’t have a cartoon syndicate and I’m not in newspapers. But I get to do this for a living because lots of readers support my Patreon with mostly small pledges! I also have prints and books for sale.


TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. They depict three people – a mother, father and their small daughter – carrying luggage and standing on a dirt road. Their path is being blocked by a large man wearing a floral shirt and an Uncle Sam hat.

PANEL 1

The woman, smiling, has stepped forward to talk to Uncle Sam.

WOMAN: Hi, America. We’re immigrants. The situation in our home country is so awful we’re forced to come live and work in the U.S…. Nearly all economists agree this benefits you a lot.

UNCLE SAM: Okay, lemme tell you the deal…

PANEL 2

Panel shows Uncle Sam grinning a bit manically.

UNCLE SAM: You’re gonna be hated so much! Major politicians will lie and say you increase crime, spread disease, even eat housepets!

PANEL 3

Uncle Sam, still grinning, waves his hands in the air.

UNCLE SAM: Despite all the ways you benefit me, you’ll be blamed for all my problems. Great deal for you, right? Now go find low-wage jobs.

PANEL 4

The father and mother look a bit peeved, and their daughter hides behind her dad, as Uncle Sam, not even looking at them, folds his arms and looks smug.

WOMAN (thought): I can’t believe this maniac is our best option.

UNCLE SAM: I’m waiting for my “thank you…”

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an obsolete cartoonists’ term for unimportant details stuck into cartoons.

PANEL 1 – On the ground, a worm is pointing a tiny gun at a bird; the bird looks frightened.

Also, on the ground is a newspaper entitled “Daily Leopard.” The top headline reads “Yum! Five new face recipes!” The lower headline reads “Op-ed: Our spots are perfect and require no change.”

PANEL 2 – Krazy and Ignatz, from the classic comic strip Krazy Kat, are standing on a wall in the background. Graffiti on the same wall says “take the moment present as a present for the moment,” a quote from the musical Into The Woods.

Uncle Sam has a tattoo with a caricature of Adam Smith in a heart.

PANEL 4 – An evil bunny, glaring and smoking a cigarette, is on the ground. A smiling man is peeking out through a hole in the wall behind Uncle Sam.


The Immigration Deal | Patreon

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11 Responses to Cartoon: The Immigration Deal

  1. Megalodon says:

    Major Trump donors who complained of immigrant ‘invasion’ used Mexican workers illegally

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/20/uline-mexican-workers-trump

  2. riverboat_grambler says:

    In the last election, Democrats cheered Biden adopting Trumpian policy and rhetoric on the southern border. They thought it was sooooo smart to follow the polling, even if it was rooted in racism.

    You feeling smart now?

  3. Dianne says:

    Not to mention that Musk is an illegal immigrant. He overstayed his student visa.

  4. Jacqueline Squid Onassis says:

    @riverboat_grambler,

    Did they? I definitely missed that. I was hanging around places that criticized Biden for being incredibly awful on immigration from the very beginning of his term. Those places are overwhelmingly Democratic voters.

  5. RonF says:

    One of the conflicts here stems from the fact that it is official U.S. policy that neither immigration nor asylum is permitted for purely personal economic reasons. You can’t legally enter the U.S. simply because you are poor and want a better life. But both Democrats and Republicans have simply ignored that for various reasons, permitting 10’s of millions of people to enter the U.S. illegally for many years.

    Unlike his recent predecessors, Trump is going to abide by the Constitutional imperative that “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” in this regard. He did run on it, after all, and that’s the choice the electorate made. The experts you cite may well be right – but that’s the province of Congress, not the President, to deal with.

  6. RonF says:

    Megalodon, trust me; absolutely no one of any political persuasion is shocked by that. As I said in a different thread, both the GOP and the Democrats have enabled illegal immigration, albeit for different reasons.

  7. RonF says:

    the widespread belief that immigration is harmful

    Are you asserting that a belief that immigration is harmful is widespread? Or is the situation actually that the belief that illegal immigration is harmful is widespread?

    And by “widespread” do you mean “I can find a bunch of people who say this” or “a majority of people believe this” or “a majority of registered Republicans believe this” or … what?

  8. Ampersand says:

    One of the conflicts here stems from the fact that it is official U.S. policy that neither immigration nor asylum is permitted for purely personal economic reasons.

    You’re right about asylum, but what official US policy forbids people from immigrating here for personal economic reasons? (Please include a link.) Of course, US law doesn’t require the US to accept all immigrants seeking a better economic life, but there’s nothing forbidding it.

    As for asylum, I think it’s pretty obvious, given when I drew it and the dialog in panel 2, that I was inspired strongly by the vicious, racist Republican attacks on Haitian immigrants. As I’m sure you know, a lot of the reason Haitians have been forced to build lives elsewhere is political upheaval and natural disasters, not “purely” economic troubles.

    Unlike his recent predecessors, Trump is going to abide by the Constitutional imperative that “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” in this regard.

    Ending birthright citizenship is a main plank of Trump’s vicious anti-immigrant policies. Today a Reagan appointed judge scornfully put Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship on hold, because the executive order is so obviously unconstitutional. So it’s counter to fact to claim that Trump’s immigration policies in any way involve respect for the Constitution.

    “In your opinion Is this executive order constitutional?” [Judge Coughenour] asked.

    Shumate said, “it absolutely is.”

    “Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” Coughenour said. “It just boggles my mind.”’

  9. Dianne says:

    I’m uncertain how anyone could without irony call Trump someone who is going to abide by Constitutional imperatives or any laws at all at this point.

  10. Ampersand says:

    Are you asserting that a belief that immigration is harmful is widespread? Or is the situation actually that the belief that illegal immigration is harmful is widespread?

    I think both are true. A lot of Americans believe undocumented immigration is harmful; and a lot believe that immigration is a bad thing, whether it’s legal or not. Look at how many of your fellow Republicans hate Haitian immigrants and cheered on filthy racist lies about them, for example. Those people in Springfield were overwhelmingly there legally, but that didn’t spare them any hate.

    Hating immigrants and nationalism aren’t exclusive to Republicans, but I’m pretty sure they’re more prevalent among Republicans than Democrats.

    I don’t know if a majority of Americans are anti-immigrant or not. But even if it’s not a majority – even if it’s only what one-third of Republicans believe, for instance – that’s still many millions of people, and I think it justifies the term “widespread.”

  11. Jacqueline Squid Onassis says:

    I seem to remember the days of RonF saying, “I didn’t vote for Trump, ” and ” I don’t agree with everything Trump does.” The trip from there to totally in the tank for Dollar Store Mussolini was swift and unsurprising, yet still disappointing.

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