Miami assumed ‘illegal’ migrants were Trump’s target. Now listen to his VP’s words | Opinion

Vice President JD Vance’s remarks at a Turning Point USA event Wednesday made it pretty clear that the federal government wants to reduce legal immigration — not just the “illegals” — on the grounds that too much immigration is harming American society.

Vance, whose wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants, said, “We have to get the overall numbers way, way down” and that former President Biden’s policies allowed too many immigrants into the country, the Associated Press reported.

“When something like that happens, you’ve got to allow your own society to cohere a little bit, to build a sense of common identity, for all the newcomers — the ones who are going to stay — to assimilate into American culture,” Vance said. “Until you do that, you’ve got to be careful about any additional immigration, in my view.”

In Miami, we have had a different experience — the opposite, really.

Miami-Dade County has been defined by immigration for decades — that’s our “common identity” that Vance seems so worried about. As a coalition of high-profile Miamians who oppose the administration’s policies on immigration said in an opinion piece for the Miami Herald this week, immigrants “have helped build our economy, enriched our culture and strengthened the very fabric of our society” that Vance purports to preserve.

When President Donald Trump carried Miami-Dade in 2024, the assumption was that he would target undocumented immigrants, in particular those who have committed crimes, but support those who came to the country “the right way.” In fact, the Republican chorus for decades has been that immigrants are welcome as long as they don’t “cut the line.”

Is that belief still true today?

If Vance’s message at the University of Mississippi is an indication of where U.S. immigration policy is headed, the immigration funnel is about to get much tighter.

Trump has moved to strip Venezuelans, Haitians and others of their Temporary Protected Status, deport students here on visas and green cards and all but shut the door to refugees fleeing war and persecution. The 7,500 refugees the administration has allowed into the country annually — down from 125,000 under Biden — are mostly white South Africans of Dutch descent who Trump says are being persecuted for their race, the Associated Press reported.

During Trump’s first term, there were discussions of ending America’s family-based immigration system, which he called “chain migration,” and replacing it with a merit-based one. If that’s brought to fruition now, it will remove a pathway to citizenship many Miami families rely on.

In 2017, the White House complained that 65% of green cards were issued based on family relations, while only one in 15 were given on the basis of skill. Trump had a point: The nation’s immigration system does favor family ties over merit. But, ironically, Trump in his second term has made it harder for skilled immigrants to even come to the country. He’s imposed a $100,000 fee on companies that hire foreigners using the H-1B work visa.

The H-1B has been the target of valid bipartisan criticism for enabling companies to hire cheaper labor from overseas instead of local workers. But the point should be to improve accountability and crack down on abusers, not to shut the door to talent and innovation just because it wasn’t born on U.S. soil.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the university system to stop hiring employees on H-1B visas. He argues that state universities must look at Florida citizens for job opportunities first. That’s something we can agree on.

However, is this truly a crisis that requires a ban on these foreign workers? Florida International University and the University of Florida, two of the state’s largest higher-education institutions, employed, respectively, 13 and 156 H-1B holders from last October to June, the Herald/Times Bureau reported. These hardly seem like off-the-chart numbers.

What is the ultimate goal of Vance, Trump and DeSantis on immigration?

If they truly want to make the system more fair, we welcome that. But their words and actions show that, increasingly, the point seems to be to stoke anti-immigrant resentment and blow up the system in favor of a nationalistic agenda.