Yes, I agree.
One of the main points of contention, as it is in the US, is illegal immigration. Brussels, as well as individual governments, have been too slow to react to the rising discontentment of the average citizen. This has enabled the far right parties to proliferate on a platform of xenophobia. Italy and the Netherlands now have leaders who are part of this movement, and they are still the moderates, seeking to curb immigration, tempering their initial rhetoric, to find reasonable and sensible ways without instilling violence.
France and Germany, the two top economies of the EU, are losing this middle ground and have finally come to agreements to stem the tide, in fear of losing altogether. I have always favored the Australian model, "If we don't need you, you need to leave". This has nothing to do with race, religion or ethnicity. Europe is in need of skilled and qualified labor, not masses of uneducated. The need for manual labor is increasingly limited.
The cost to the average taxpayer, already under pressure from cost of living and other crises, is immense. These people need to be processed, housed, (medically) treated, etc. And there are societal costs; migrant neighborhoods do not integrate, they have higher crime rates, which again costs more to regulate, which again feeds discrimination and resentment.
They are people, we cannot sink the boats or shoot them out of the water, and I hope that day never comes, but there are limits to what can be absorbed and some kind of sensible procedure must be enforced.
Part of Trump's rhetoric is about the immigration problem. But his promise to close the border didn't happen, Mexico certainly didn't pay for the wall, why should they. And I understand he even blocked recent policy because it would favor Biden. So does he really care about this issue? Apparently not.
They're all liars in the end.
