Immigration: So what exactly is it again that we are trying to fix? (Part 1)
If you want to fix something, you first have to know what it
is supposed to look like when it’s not broken.
That goes for immigration as well.
But I wouldn’t call what is going on now fixing
anything. They are trying to clean up a
mess years in the making through neglect, political expediency, and willful
disregard for the laws of the land. That
same moral rebellion that was energized when the courts found religious and moral
instruction and prayer and talk about God not proper in public schools and then
later in public life at all found it hard to keep a lot of laws. It turned a blind eye to illegal immigration,
probably because it was easy to exploit people with secrets to hide; and
besides, if we threw off all those restraining personal rules, why should we
strictly enforce rules on others, especially if no one is being hurt?
The real problem with immigration is that a rule (the 14th
Amendment) made after the Civil War to give freed black slaves citizenship was
transformed into free citizenship for anyone who could get born within our
borders by any means. Now our
politicians know, or should know, that this isn’t really the case, because the
children born here of foreign diplomats aren’t given citizenship. And even the Native Americans didn’t receive
citizenship until the next century with an act of Congress.
So to say that children born here to illegal immigrants
automatically become citizens is an abuse of our Constitution, wishful thinking,
and a pandering to Hispanic voters. This
is like telling people it is wrong to rob banks, but if you do, you can keep
the money. Just pay taxes on it, of
course.
We are providing a strong incentive for people to come here
by whatever means, because it is worth the risks they take to give their
children the privileges of citizenship.
That’s why people rob banks. They
weigh the risks against the potential benefits and find it worth it.
And why do I get the impression that the major impetus
behind immigration ‘reform’ today is that the Democrats feel they will have a
lock on the votes from all these new voters?
And why would that be? I would
venture to say that the mere matter of not being citizens is not a
stumblingblock to Democrats for getting immigrants to vote. This is certainly the main reason they oppose
voter ID laws.
What is being touted as immigration reform is really nothing
of the sort. The children of illegals,
brought here through no fault of their own, are given legal status. But then who will have the heart, or the gall,
to send their parents back to their country of origin? So the parents get a pass as well.
This ‘reform’ will only try to clean up the mess of years of
intentional indifference only to let the problem reoccur down the road. I don’t believe them if or when they say this
will be different. We’ll be back here
again in another generation. If any
legalization occurs before the borders are secure, the borders will never become
secure.
And as long as we provide the incentive of free citizenship,
we will always an abundance of illegal immigrants.
Those who turn a blind eye to illegal immigration are strong
on pointing out all the benefits of immigration, even illegal immigration. Indeed, there are benefits, but we need to
look a little more closely as what is going on here.
The primary reason we need large numbers of immigrants today
is that the people already living here are not reproducing in sufficient
numbers to replace the population. So our
populace would be gradually aging with fewer younger people to support the
elderly. In the past, families supported
their aged, but now we need more taxpaying workers to pay for our ever
expanding government. So we should not
be surprised that our government is in no hurry to slow down any form of
immigration.
We’ve have been teaching our daughters to pursue careers
more than families, so we should not be surprised that families are
shrinking.
However, since 1965, our government’s priority in immigration
has been to reunite families. Noble,
compassionate intent, but it defeats the whole purpose of immigration. This means that we are not only getting the
taxpayers but all his family which essentially resembles the demographics we
already have.
I have two siblings who are not working, one due to age and
another due to health. If I were the
immigrant and my entire extended family were to come here, all the supposed
advantages of immigration would be nullified, taxpayers offset by
non-taxpayers.
We are told of the need for immigrants because of their
entrepreneurial spirit. But I see no
reason to see the current crop of immigrants as more entrepreneurial than the
rest of us. With promises of free
medical care and citizenship for new born children, it is not just the
entrepreneurs that we are attracting.
We used to favor immigrants who had qualities we were
looking for. Now we seem to have little
say in who comes in, though I have read that white Europeans are having a real
hard time.
Some say that diversity is our strength. Well, yes and no. Diverse minds can bring new perspectives on
solving common problems. But diverse
minds can also have different goals, different values, and different ways of
approaching life.
In the first case, they are united around a common
goal. In the second, they are
irremediably divided. Look at Washington D.C.
Our government is divided over two diametrically opposed views
of how to run our country. There is no
way to compromise on most issues. If one
side says that we are taxed too high and spend too much, any compromise will
have higher taxes and more spending.
Just less of an increase.
We used to have more of a consensus on what America
stands for, what it means to be an American.
Our nation has lost its sense of what it is we actually stand for. The more diversity we have sought, the more
we have cast aside our values to find the lowest common denominator. And that seems to be merely the fact that we
all live in the same country. And that’s
about it. So the more diverse our
immigration base, the less we share of common values, common interests, common
identity.
Immigration: So what exactly is it again that we are trying to
fix? (Part 2)
One of our founding principles is e pluribus unum, out of many one.
I read that this originally applied to the uniting of 12 colonies into
one nation, but it soon defined our vision of what immigration was all
about. There was an American identity
that was sought, the proverbial melting pot.
Now they talk of the salad bowl.
All different elements tossed together but each retaining its original
identity.
If the United States is so great that everyone wants to come
here, but then when they are here, they bring all the elements of their former
homelands that we then incorporate into our being, then we slowly lose what it
was that made us what we were.
Sure Italians gave us pizza and the Chinese gave us chop
suey, but what made us great was more than our international cuisine. We certainly don’t teach our children this in
our public schools anymore. Instead of
the classics of Western civilization, we get minority studies. We are more concerned with empathy than
excellence. No slight to minorities, but
if we don’t teach our country’s values in school, we will soon no longer be the
country that the immigrants so badly wanted to come to.
We are rejecting our past.
And in doing so, we have no idea where we are going, or what it was that
made us great. Those of us who are older
are seeing many ways in which we are declining as a nation. And immigration now unfortunately is a big
part of that problem. Instead of
enlarging the American vision, they are often fragmenting it. Instead of our nation uniting, it is slowly
fracturing into myriads of particular, separate interests identified with an
ever increasing number of demographic groups, every group requiring the
attention and action and money of the Federal Government to address.
So now what would true immigration reform look like?
1) We must stop rewarding
unlawful behavior by giving instant citizenship to the children of those who
are in this country illegally. What do
people risk by entering our country illegally?
A return trip home? And what are
the rewards? For many, it is the
citizenship of their children. Yes, of
course, there is also the free medical care (if you go to the county hospitals)
and a better life in so many other ways.
2) We must secure our
borders and fix our visa system, so that visitors who extend their stays cannot
disappear off the radar.
3) We need to
implement the E-Verify system immediately.
This is the best way we have now to ensure that companies do not hire
people who are not here legally.
If we don’t do these first three things, we will have this
same problem again and again and again.
If we are not serious about enforcing the laws we already
have, any new laws would simply be a joke.
We have three states now that offer driver’s licenses to illegals. And these are the people who make our
laws? If they have no respect for the
laws we already have, why are they in office?
4) After we deal with
essentially ending the flow and incentives for illegal immigration, those who
were brought here as children could be given legal status with a path to
citizenship. No need for penalties for people
who did nothing wrong. However, those
who are still children living with their parents, if the parents are no longer
able to find employment, they may find themselves returning with their parents
to their country of origin. Those who were
already deemed US
citizens can come back when they are able to live on their own.
5) We have far more
people wanting to come here than we can assimilate. So we can and should show preference to those
who can be of most benefit to us and who are most common to our culture.
Does this sound cruel and heartless? The fact is we cannot accommodate
everyone. Our system now is first come,
first served. This is why our country is in such
unsustainable debt: we feel we have to take care of everybody through
government largess, and we are broke.
And immigration no longer offers us a way out.
Another reason I question the wisdom in that change in
immigration policy is that prior to 1965, our country favored northern
Europeans in our immigration policy. They were the closest of any peoples to common
values, a common worldview, religion, and culture. They were more willing and able to ‘melt’
into the pot.
Our President says we are no longer a Christian nation. We have a large and growing Muslim
population. Is there any Muslim nation
that attracts immigrants, that we would want to emulate? Many countries in Europe
can become Muslim nations in our lifetime due to immigration. Is this what we want in our future?
If you want to ‘reform’ immigration, reform it. Change the policies that are contributing to
the problems and not just patch up the mistakes of the past. If we don’t believe in who we are, who we
have been, we will change in ways we never would have imagined.
