Monrovia – As the morning of Wednesday rolled out and the world woke up to the harsh reality that businessman Donald J. Trump has been elected President of the United States of America.
Report by Al-Varney Rogers alvarney.rogersfrontpageonline.com
On every street corner, hatai shops, offices and university campuses in Monrovia, Liberians were seen in their numbers, discussing how the once seemingly impossible had happened, the Donald Trump victory.
The core of most of the discussions surrounded on the President elect Trump’s stance on the deportation of undocumented immigrants and his harsh rhetoric to the African American community during his eighteen long months of campaign.
A resident of central Monrovia, Mark Williams, in soft tone and a sad mood said a Trump presidency didn’t cross his mind.
“I cannot imagine Americans electing this man whose comments were divisive all through his campaigns, he has said nothing positive about Africans,” Williams said.
“Trump said he will deport undocumented immigrants, do you know how many Liberians in the U.S who went there as the result of the war and do not have proper documents but are yet contributing to growth and development of Liberia?”
“The Liberian economy largely depends on remittances, so if bulk of those people are brought back, it will have a serious effect on the economy,”
Representative (Sinoe County District -#1) Jefferson Kanmoh said the relationship between Liberia and the U.S under Trump will be based on mutual respect and engagement.
“Whatever ties us with the United States under the leadership of Donald Trump will be determined by the principle of mutual respect and mutual engagement,” Kanmoh said.
“In the continent of Africa, our respective countries will remain engage with the United States, so that together within the principle of mutual respect we will identify how global challenges can be addressed.”
“I know his earlier position on Africa is based on the lack of understanding but the dialogue will help him understand the issues through international cooperation and address the issues that give rise to the masses of individuals traveling to the US.
And if those issues are addressed, it will be no longer necessary for people to leave for that part of the world,” Representative Kanmoh added.
A 2015 study by the American Action Forum (AAF) says there are approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the US.
“Rounding them up and deporting them would present a huge logistical and financial challenge to America’s military, law enforcement, and border control agencies,” the AAF said.
Trump hasn’t set out a timeframe for his mass deportation strategy, but an AAF report estimates it would take about 20 years to find and deport that many people.
Based on an analysis for 5 million people, the Centre for American Progress estimates that a mass deportation from the US would cost an average of $10,070 (£6,624) per person. For 11.3 million people, that’s $114bn (£75bn).
“And that would cover only the basic operational costs – apprehension, detention, legal processing, and deportation.”” According to the AAF, the total cost of a 20-year mass deportation programme would be somewhere between $420 and $620 billion.
But we’re not finished yet, there’s still the impact on the economy. The AAF report, published earlier this year, estimates that undocumented immigrants made up 6.4% of the country’s labour force – about 11 million workers – in 2014.”
“It predicts that deporting all of those workers would shrink the US economy by nearly 6%, or $1.6 trillion, by 2035.
“That’s not to mention the enormous potential for lawsuits and reparations claims filed against the government.
This massive deportation programme would have to be done with the support – or at least tacit consent, of the American people, many of whom will have lived and worked with, befriended and loved undocumented immigrants.”
“It is time for us to come together as one united people,” Trump told the crowd during a victory speech that tried to put aside the taunts and insults that became hallmarks of his campaign.
Emmanuel James -“It going to bring more burdens on the government of Liberia. Many of them were not capacitating themselves. How will you go to school or earn good money when you do not have good status. It will not make any difference in terms of money coming from the United States of America.
Some of those guys are there causing problems. They were not working for good money and they were just on parties here and there. It is going to be hard for them to start their life all over again. The election simply shows that men are the best in leadership, the mistake we make in 2005 will not be repeated again.”
Marcus Wlue: “it is a great boost for our country. They are coming to help built our country, except for those who were there having fine time. My recommendation to the government of Liberia is that they should open more entities and corporation to create more jobs. I think the next President should work very hard to build a good relationship with Donald Trump. We did not get much from Obama, he made a tour in Africa and did not reach to Liberia.”
Cyrus Reeves: “I want the United States of America to have pithy on to allow them get their status and not to deport them. People who are receiving money from their relatives in America are going to have problems because they depend on their in the united Stated for school fees, some depend on their relative for rent and other things.”
Anstina Pottor: Stella Maris Polytechnic: “I am down hearted and have a very low esteem for the U.S. It will affect me because I have family in the U.S., and Trump has threatened to send Africans back home. I will blame the blacks who did not turn out to vote; but in other way I can’t blame them again, because when they voted Obama into power, maybe he did not meet their expectations. So I feel they were down hearted to go and vote Clinton, which is wrong. I am really surprised because what kind of example will we follow during our elections?
I will tell them now not to interfere in our elections because it looks like we have more sense than them. We voted Madam Sirleaf into power in 2005 because we knew she was our best option, but the Americans did the opposite, so I rate the Americans 15 percent. My final word is that we should not emulate the U.S. in no way, but we should vote our consciences.”
Jurah Sanoe: “I do not think it was the vote against minority and majority. Madam Clinton was for the minority, while Trump was for the majority. So the election was a protest that says, ‘Give back our land to us’. The reason I say this is that Obama’s father who was an African went to school in the U.S. and had an African child who turned out to rule the Americans. Because two black people are occupying the White House, they are vexed and they want pay back to get their land, so they voted Trump because he is white and it would return their land to them. I was so down hearted because I did not sleep last night because of that election.
I do not believe that the man called Trump has the expertise to run the U.S. because he has never been a politician before but a business man. To prove what I am saying, since he won the elections, none of the US allies have called him to congratulate him, why? The good thing is that U.S. has laws, so Trump would not do all he said he would do when he became President . The reason is before his acceptance speech, he was called and schooled on what to say as the President of the US, which meant if he says anything bad now, and it will make America look bad.
Varlee Massalay: Chairman of the Unity Base Intellectual Center: “I was very disappointed over the US election results. The bottom line is all about America and what is good for it. The Americans feel that Trump can lead them, so how I feel won’t make a difference, but I was very surprised of the results that Trump won after defying all societal norms. Trump and his supporters said they were leading and we all thought they were living in dream land, but to our outmost surprise, Trump won. We did not see it coming. Trump did everything to stay in the race to beat Clinton who had been in politics for many years.
The Trump that spoke this morning was the same Trump 18 months ago and he said he will unite the country. To our brothers and sisters who have stayed in the US without paper, I do not think Trump will just pack you all up and send you home, there will be some program put in place to accommodate you, once you abide by the rules. I think the way we expect Trump to behave, would not be the same now, that he is President ; it was only done to in task the voters. He will come down.