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Amnesty, Immigration and Border Security

Pardon me for being political here but I have to say something.

Emotions charge legal issues at times and it is natural that a lot of red herrings and tangential issues are brought up to veil the substantive issues, diverting attention from what might have seemed at first a relatively simple yes or no answer.

Do we need to improve our Border Security? Absolutely!

Instead of dealing with something that we have virtually ignored in the interest of being a good neighbor to both Canada and Mexico, the issue of illegal aliens almost always is brought to the forefront of the discussion. Although it might seem irrelevant to Border Security it is not. The reason is that even though we have had a policy of offering amnesty to illegals since 1986, the law was never adequately enforced. In fact the Mexican government has tacticly and sometimes even openly encourgaed illegal migration into the United States, apparently as a means of dealing with their own issues of unemployment. It is also a source of a good deal of reveue in Mexico. The inneffectiveness of our border control and immigration policy has created, and even institutionalized a system for allowing illegal aliens to come into the United States.

In terms of Border Security, it is perhaps frightening to the average American citizen how realtively easy it is to eneter the United States from Meixco. In the post 9/11 world in which we have come to live, it is imperitive that we address the porous border between not only Mexico but also Canada. I think most Americans agree that something needs to be done and the debate on the Border Security issue comes down to what and how much to do, it's costs and relative effectiveness.

What has muddied the otherwise straight forward and clear-cut issue of security what to do with all the millions of illegal immigrants who are already here. Although this is related to Border Security, it is tangential to whether we need to better secure our borders. It is stated as a fact to illustrate just our open our borders are and have always been, posing a very real threat to security as an opportunity for terrorists to enter the US without detection. Where the discussion gets off track is when the issue of dealing with the immigration problem we already have gets merged with preventing the influx of even more illegals because we have not fixed the previous problem, that is it too easy to enter the US illegally.

There is a security issue with the Canadian Border that probably needs to be shored-up here and there but it is an irrelevant issues to the immigration problem that we have. We don't have 14 million illegal Canadians in the US and in Canada the government actually tries to create jobs for its own people. They do not actively encourage their people to illegally enter the US to seek sub stanard pay in menial jobs in a neighboring country. There are many legal Candians who work in the US but it is a matter of choice not necessity. They are productive to both the encomies of the US and Canada.

We have a huge problem, upwards of 14 million people that we are failing to see will not voluntarily come forward without some incentive like the proposed guest worker program. The hard line approach of rounding them up and deporting them or making them follow a law written in a very different era (1986) simply is inadequate to address the scope of this problem. Suggesting that any who help them (presumably family members and friends who have a legal status) would be felons would put an immense burden on the courts and the prisons that are already overwhelmed with our domestially produced criminals.

Raising the race card is often the first red flag that I look for whenever an issue is being pushed for other agendas. It ignores the human element of the situation while purporting to accomplish the exact opposite - giving a voice to the oppressed. I am beside myself to understand where is the alledged racisim in the discussion. The 'side' of the illegals is actually using their status as workers willing to do the low wage, menial jobs that American citizens do not want to do, saying that this is a good thing. Have I missed something here? To me that sounds like a very racist commentary on the situation as it supports all sorts of stereotypes regarding the Latin community being farm workers, landscapers, janitors, household servants and the like. Yes in reality those are the jobs that illegals are filling. But to use it as an argument in favor of allowing the staus quo is beyond logic and completely ignores the real discrimination - that people are coming illegally into the US to work jobs that pay under the table below minimum wage. The argument that these things somehow help our economy and even the economy of Mexico is in a word ludicrous. Only in that there is a transaction of money between the workers and the employers can this be seen as anything but a sort of institutionally encouraged involuntary servitude, preying on the bad situation of a lot of poor people with very few alternatives. Perhaps the skill set of the illegals would need to improve in order for them to be competitive for higher paying jobs.

That is a wholy different issue altogether as whose responsibility is it to educate the poor?
it is not a question indemic to only the Latin community or even the United State or Mexico.

When there is sharp division on a heated issue there has to be a poinbt of compromise that achieves as many of the goals of each side. Maybe we have forgotten. Instead of dealing with something that we have virtually ignored in the age of political bickering and partisanship that the way things have always been accomplished in America is by addressing the key, important issues and seeking the common ground of mutual interest and tolerant acceptance in the balance of more extreme solutions

There are three issues and three alone. If we can focus on answering thes, maybe not even at the same time but they are related if for no other reason then the current political discourse has made them related:.

We need to secure our borders.

We need to deal with the 10 to 14 million illegals who are already here while doing it in a humane and respectful way that does not arbitraily or needlessly destroy lives and families.

We need to integrate the illegals into the mainstream economy where they can become taxpaying, productive citizens who are earning what they are worthand are able to become part of our diversity not a source of our division.

E

posted by Unknown @ 11:55 PM