Immigration
Immigration is important to me. I am the result of immigration. Hard working men and women who gave up their lives in foreign lands and came to the United States to make a better life for themselves and their descendants. Nearly all my ancestors arrived before the country regulated immigration. As the line goes “They were poor men, with dirty faces…”. They followed Gunny Highway’s dictum, and adapted, overcame, and improvised. They became Americans, and America became great through their efforts.
What bothers me about the illegal immigration issue is the apparent racist nature of the debate. It is estimated that Mexicans make up the largest single group in that population. Once upon a time, it was the Irish, the Chinese, the Italians, the Poles. In the 200 plus year history of our great nation, many groups have comprised the majority of immigrants at any given time. For the vast majority of that time, immigration was unrestricted, or rarely limited. Yet race or ethnic origin was still a means for the bigoted to discriminate against immigrants.
The President has proposed a plan that would, in part, allow illegals who have a job to remain in the country. And the answer from the nativist right is “Deport them!”
Why should people who show that they are willing to work, and who have a job, be sent back to a country where they don’t? Is this about who they are rather than what they do? Tell me how the anti-immigration arguments differ from those of the Know Nothings, or the Klan in the 1890’s? Immigrants speak a different language. They live in the same neighborhoods. They celebrate different holidays, eat different foods, smell different, act different. For 150 years it’s been : No Irish Need Apply. No Chinks. No Wops. No Polacks. And every single time the ethnic group most hated and reviled and looked down upon has assimilated. It takes generations, and we have to have that view of history and of our nation.
The nativists raise the issue of terrorism. Since 9/11, all the attacks on American soil that are termed terrorism were conducted by American citizens or legal immigrants (though Johnny Malvo was illegal, his mentor was not). The El Al shooting guy was legal. The ALF / ELF folks are all citizens, so far as we know. The FBI believes the anthrax attacks were domestic. The Texas folks just convicted of WMD type charges were citizens. I’m stating fact, and suggesting that a chain of facts may prove a theory. My theory is that we should first be looking for acts that have actually happened repeatedly before looking for acts that might or could happen.
Could uncontrolled immigration allow terrorists into the country? Of course. Has it been found to have occurred? Not yet demonstrated.
The nativists are failing to come up with a practical means of satisfying their demands to deport all the illegals. Honest employers already incur a financial burden complying with the INS regulations. Are we then to be asked to prove our citizenship as a matter of routine at banks, hospitals, schools as well? How do we do that without a national ID card, or a Federal system of verifying identities?
Nine million illegals, more or less, 3-5% of the population. Can you imagine rounding up that many people? Locating them, identifying them, proving that they are not legal or a citizen, and then finding a country that would take them back. Mexico has no reason to allow 6 million people back into its country. Will we build camps along the borders, like the Palestinians live in now? Shouldn’t that God awful mess be a cautionary tale about uprooting people. That all started with 650,000 Palestinians.
Most people know by name about 250 people. Imagine the police coming and taking 8 of them away. Not all illegals pick lettuce. It might be your doctor, your maid, the owner of your gas station, or you. The government does make mistakes, all the time, and there is nothing that says that a pogrom-like roundup won’t grab a few citizens.
You do realize that it’s possible to have a Hispanic name, speak Spanish fluently, and still be a bonafide citizen of the United States?
I’m all in favor of enforcing the immigration laws. But no one has demonstrated a practical method of removing the current group of illegals. I say “Fait accompli!” Find a way to legalize them, get them all into the legal economy. The nativists are proposing, for the first time in our history, to take working people and send them back to where they came from. This country was built by immigrants who were willing to work for low wages and at backbreaking menial jobs. So now that the Micks, the Chinks, the Wops and the Polacks have made it in, we close the borders?
It’s funny how the very people who regularly tout the benefits of the American Way of Life, capitalism, free enterprise, the virtues of libertarianism, the innate goodness of the United States turn around and say the equivalent of “Oh, but that won’t work for Mexicans.” Where are your principles? If freedom and economic growth are good for you and I, why not everyone? Hey, maybe I’m waving the black flag here, but my tiny brand of libertarianism says let people choose for themselves, not have their future imposed on them by government.
A half million people vote with their feet every year by coming to the United States. Just like Michael DeLaney did in 1845, and folks named Kroger, Meyers, Simmins, Ferris, and yes, Stockstaad, too. We are the future that those people wanted when they came to the United States. How can we honestly deny those choices and that freedom to those who are coming here today? Where are your principles?
Reprinted from Blogger in January 2004
Subscribe
Comments