Controversial Hamptons protestor wants "illegals" out! Oh, and he will definitely be voting for Trump.

After spending four days in the Hamptons last week coaching soccer, I found my drive to work ruined by a wanker with a sign. On the NY Route 27 heading east there is a man armed with a large ignorant picket sign, which I later found out has been a permanent fixture outside the same Southampton 7-Eleven every morning, all summer long.

As you can see, the sign reads “DEPORT ILLEGALS” on the one side, and what you can’t see is the other side that reads “YOUR HORN IS MY PAY”. As we took our morning pit stop for the two for $3 Gatorades and a donut, I was lucky enough to observe the controversial protester for a couple of minutes each day. His typical routine is a few waves followed by a solid “'MERICA, 'MERICA, 'MERICA” chant. Then every 16-wheeler receives a special emphatic salute thus pumping the middle-aged man so much he transcends into a bellow of “TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY”.

After some digging, it turns out the protester is named Tom Weddell and is no stranger in the ultra lavish end of Long Island. In a 2013 article published in popular Hamptons news source Dan’s Papers, titled “Protester Tom Wedell Returns To Southampton” the author attempts to clear up smoke surrounding Wedell’s motives with a quote from the man himself after rumors that he is paid for his protesting: “Nobody pays me to be here.”

After seeing earlier pictures, the “YOUR HORN IS MY PAY” portion of his sign was not included. It is likely that the addition is a dig at the rumor polluting mouths of Southampton, but as a someone who sits on the left side of the fence, I am just going to dream that Trump is paying him the big bucks to enforce a ludicrous and unfeasible immigration policy in one of the richest playgrounds on earth, and it's all going to come out in a juicy Times article listing all the reasons why you should not vote for a billionaire to front a party that concerns itself with making the rich even richer.

Anyway, a couple of back-handed remarks later and back to the article with the real journalists who had the kahunas to interview the outspoken "'Mercian." Wedell reportedly shared comments such as, “Ten years I’ve lost my income because of these guys,” apparently pointing in the direction of day laborers in the 7-Eleven parking lot, and “I’ve been black-balled out here.” Clearly Wedell is angry his contracting career ended, but does his ignorant protesting go too far or is it just a bold expression of free speech?

My issue with his chosen form of protesting is twofold: firstly, he is generalizing. “Deport illegals” has an absolute connotation to it, assuming he means all illegals should be deported, which is very problematic and probably more likely to hurt the economy than save it. This due to the labor gap it would create because of how large America’s middle class is.

Secondly, simply blaming illegals for all kinds of economic issues, such as the wealth gap, unemployment, distribution of wealth and lack of welfare is ignorant because there are many other mechanisms in place, which are doing a fine job of making those problems worse: unfair subsidization and corporate tax breaks.

However, I cant help but think that this ignorant protester and his views on immigration represent an entire political faction of ill-informed Americans who jump to blame a group of people that they don’t understand both circumstantially and as people. Despite the fact they are breaking the law, they may not be breaking it by choice, it may well be due to situational conditions in countries they came from, which made the decision to break a law to survive an easy one.

The popular blame game is also not helped by conservative candidates such as Trump, who project immigration policy that lacks both rationality, and as mentioned earlier, feasibility.

Understood is the frustration that illegal citizens provoke, but the perception that they hurt the economy is not entirely accurate. Of course, nobody likes a free rider, but there are plenty of free riders who were born and bred on American soil and have all the correct paperwork. But many Americans, and Europeans too, tend only to look at immigration issues from one side, and that’s the side with their wallet on it.

To stop and think about how it is to be on the other side of the white picket fence, where the grass isn’t green and the roses aren’t red, where life isn’t just a struggle but can be a fight to survive; to stop and attempt to empathize with that for a second just might help adapt the ill-informed opinions on immigration in order for them to be re-thought slightly more rationally — and humanely — about the issue.