Thanks to Donald Trump, immigration has become a hot button issue in this election. Immigration is always a contentious problem in the United States, with legalities, economics, compassion, and, yes, some racism all coming together to make for very heated arguments. However, the debate has been ratcheted up to a new level of tension this year with Trump’s pandering to the uneducated, and as a result all the Republican candidates can talk about seems to be illegal immigration and anchor babies.

Anchor babies (a crass term referring to the children of immigrants to the United States who are granted citizenship by their births) are a particularly huge problem, judging by the amount of time the Republicans and the press have spent talking about them. However, there is no reasonable way to consider fully legal US citizens to be a real problem.

The argument to limit illegal immigration is that these people are coming in, stealing American jobs, and increasing the crime rate. However, children born here are not coming to steal American jobs – they ARE Americans. They will be working, paying taxes, and will be a full part of American society. When asked how they feel about people coming into our country to make better lives this way, Americans are overwhelmingly positive. But when they’re called “anchor babies,” when we frame the issue as people coming here and breaking the rules, Americans are furious.

The question is why is this issue being framed this way? Why are politicians and the corporate-owned media talking so much about the dangers of anchor babies? The answer is that corporate America relies on the labor of illegal immigrants and is therefore engaged in a campaign to make Americans hate immigrants so much that we will oppose any attempt to fix our immigration system.

There is perhaps no aspect of American life where the Wall Street elites have manipulated the American public more than in the debate about immigration. The corporate elites of the United States LOVE illegal immigration for two reasons. First, illegal immigrants can be paid a much lower wage and have no legal recourse if they are mistreated by their employers. Second, competition from these low-paid illegal immigrants drives down the wages that need to be paid to legal workers.

The situation is perfect, from the point of view of America’s 1%. They never want to see the immigration system in the United States repaired because that would lead to wages dramatically increasing across the board for all American workers. If the immigration system stays broken, Wall Street can keep pocketing the money they would otherwise be spending on salary and benefits for workers. Accordingly, they instruct the media outlets they own and the politicians that they fund to talk about things like the “anchor baby” problem.

Regular, working Americans have natural allies in the people who come to this country hoping for a better life, but the Wall Street elites have done everything they can to make sure that Americans hate immigrants. Together, we could work to take the power back from the 1% on Wall Street and in Washington, but they will be safe as long as we keep fighting each other.

When I am elected president, one of my top priorities will be to completely overhaul our immigration system. Our country and our economy are strengthened by immigration, not weakened. We need to create a path for people who want to sacrifice everything to become a part of our great country to come here and become vital, contributing parts of our society. And we need to take back the power from the robber barons of Wall Street who would prefer to have us fighting our neighbors rather than working together to make a stronger, more prosperous country. I hope you’ll join me by casting a write-in vote for Art Drew for President of the United States in 2016.