‘Democrats in the Senate will not allow any punitive immigration policies’

Dr Anayo Michael Ukeje is a US-based Nigerian Chemical Engineer with 18 years Pharmaceutical/Biopharmaceutical industry experience. He is a Subject Matter Expert, (SME) specializing in complex drug combination product development, process equipment design, qualifications and technology transfer process. He expresses his concerns about Trump’s Presidency in this online interview with SAMSON EZEA

Are you surprised with Donald Trump’s victory in the just concluded US election?
I am not surprised, but concerned about his campaign rhetoric.

In your view, what made his victory possible?
Anger and feeling of frustration by vast majority of the working class, especially non-college educated rural whites and Hillary’s failure to win or exceed 2012 Obama coalition votes from minorities, millennials, women and college-educated white men.

Are you not worried over Trump’s possibility of implementing his campaign promises?
No, there are checks and balances in US political system. He can only apply limited administrative executive actions, but to change the immigration policy, he needs the congress to pass a law, and democrats in the Senate will not allow any punitive immigration measures to pass without filibustering it. Already Obama administration is deporting a lot of illegal immigrants with criminal records in great numbers, even more than the Bush administration. Banning Muslims from certain countries may sound easy, but such policy may backfire and defeat its purpose.

Are you considering returning to Nigeria to avoid Trump’s trouble?
No, I am not worried about his campaign rhetoric.

Do you see US system being a barrier to Trump’s campaign promises of deporting Blacks and others?
I do, and to be clear, there is nothing Trump administration can do about legal immigrants, be it black, white or brown, we are only worried about illegal immigrants and perhaps his refugee policies.

How would his planned policies affect Nigerians in the US, if implemented to the letter?
It is not possible to implement these campaign utterances as policies, look at how Trump as the President-elect has started moderating his policies on Obamacare, building the walls along US- Mexican border, banning all Muslims, etc.

I am not worried about Nigerians. They are very smart people and most, if not all of them who have immigration issues, are doing something about it. As for others, if they don’t commit any crime(s), they don’t need to worry.

Would you have preferred Hillary Clinton to win and why?
Yes but she has considerable issues, some real and others imagined. These issues include the e-mail server issue, Wikileaks, 2012 Benghazi attack coupled with her lack of openness, relationship with Wall Street and Republican’s prolonged attacks on her that successfully painted her in the eyes of most electorates as untrustworthy cost her the election. Mind you, she won the popular votes, but popular votes do not count; only a winner of at least 270 Electoral College votes from the States is considered a winner in the US electoral system.