President Biden’s entire term so far has left him in a bit of a bind. His approval rating is at Trump levels of terrible, and that means that half the country completely despises him. Seeing him flounder about like this hurts my brain to even see, let alone talk about. Even Democrats hate him now, in fact. How do I know this? He is removing a Trump-era border policy aimed at public health called Title 42, and surprisingly, the Democrats are mad. When they are this livid over a Trump-era policy getting the axe, the s*** has not only hit the fan, but it has also jammed the blades too. 

This policy effectively makes sure that migrants entering the US are screened outside of our borders to assess public health risks. The policy itself is terrible and half-assed, but the issue I have is that Biden’s administration has completely lost the plot on the immigration issue. The Republicans are on pace for a Red Wave in the upcoming midterms, and one of their campaign attacks toward Biden is about “open borders.” The removal of this policy may be the final piece to the GOP puzzle on this issue. Sure, their wall idea may be wasteful and costly as hell, but at least they have a concrete plan to solve this issue, unlike the Biden administration. However, I just might have an idea on how to stem this current wave of migrants.

The answer to the problems on our southern border, in my opinion, is to prop up and support more democratic and open governments where these people come from. After all, the numbers don’t generally suggest a correlation between how restrictive our policies are and the amount of migrants that arrive at the border. Therefore, simple logic would suggest that we are not the problem, except for one thing. That thing is probably how we prop up our agricultural industry at the expense of our Latin American allies. For example, corn is heavily subsidized in the US, despite numerous nearby countries being just as capable as us of growing it. Simply put, the industrial farming scales in the US simply give too much supply for the farmers in ,say, Mexico or Honduras to keep up with if demand doesn’t increase accordingly. Supply has simply far outstripped demand at this point, and many Latin American farmers have been driven out of the corn production field. With their livelihoods gone and governments crippled by civil strife, these farmers are now migrating. What else was going to happen other than the displaced people heading to the most stable and visible country they could get to, which just so happens to be America? 

There would be many aspects to this solution, the first of which being reducing corn subsidies that have driven up the supply too far beyond demand. Then, we have to increase aid to Latin American countries so they could possibly find ways out of any civil strife. This international cooperation will allow for their corn fields to return to their former glory, and that should stem a lot of this migration. In short, if a certain amount of America’s agriculture is re-allocated to allied Latin American countries, all involved will prosper in various ways. America will strengthen its alliances in the Americas, while every other nation involved will be better off economically and once again have a dependable American ally. 

Now, I know what I said is probably a pipe dream in such a bureaucratic, corporatized system, but that doesn’t mean I can’t suggest it. It’s not like my idea would be any worse than the vast, monocultured corn fields in the Midwest as of now. And for those asking about lost jobs, without agri-business at their throats, perhaps Midwestern farmers may be able to make more money than they currently do. This is all while potentially being their own bosses once again, not nearly as dependent on larger corporations. After all, Monsanto may be gone, but the system it created didn’t die when it got bought out by Bayer. This is a modest, honestly somewhat corny proposal, but it’s one that would benefit Latin American farmers and governments as well as Americans as a whole. Now only if Bernie could’ve gotten the big money out. Some things just never change.