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SubscribeWe need livable wages, even wage incentives, for American factory, agricultural, and service workers. In order to make that possible in a global economy, we need to use taxes, tariffs, and currency policies as weapons against protectionist nations. We also need to recognize the economies of scale inherent in modern farming practices, and consider that some regulation will be needed to control the natural trend toward oligopoly.
If we are simply unwilling to do that, then we must recognize that we need those 10 million immigrants. We need a way for them to come here legally.
And we need border enforcement. That should be part and parcel of our security policy, not our immigration policy. South American Drug Gangs are terrorists just as much as the Taliban.
John McCain reached across the aisle to create a reform bill with exactly these 2 pillars in it. Look what the Corporatists in the “So-Called Right” did to him. They ran a kook against him in a state full of scared old people, so he would Swing to the Extreme.
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Some might think it odd that I’d comment on this post before your others. Like most Americans, the economy and the deficit are at the top of my priority list — but this one’s personal. Bear with me, because there’s a lot of context here…
I’m a Native American. This is the only home that me and my ancestors have ever known.
In the 1950’s, the Commonwealth of Virginia issued my mother a driver’s license so she could drive a school bus. Next to “race”, it said “Negro” — because the great Commonwealth didn’t recognize the American Indian as a race and if you weren’t white, you were automatically a Negro.
Both of my brothers began their education at the Sharon Indian School in King William County, Virginia. In a nutshell, the county was obligated to provide an Indian school because there was no way they were going to allow the Indian kids to attend the county’s public (and predominantly white) school. That lasted until the 60’s brought about integration laws, the county boarded up the school and declared it off limits until it was returned to the tribe in 1987.
I’m always surprised by the number of people who live their tidy little lives believing that stories like these only existed in the ancient past or old western movies.
In 2002, the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act was introduced in Congress. And again in 2003 (S.1423)… and again in 2005 (S.480)… until the House version (H.R.1385) was finally passed by in 2009, but still awaits Senate approval.
Now there’s another bill that has been aptly dubbed The Native American Apology Resolution. This one is seriously overdue given that my uncles, cousins and brother fought for this country in two wars and did so proudly. It’s difficult for me to fathom the fact that my uncles were so proud to wear a uniform for a country that wasn’t very proud of them.
Now that you understand who I am, I think you’ll understand why my core beliefs are pretty basic:
1. I believe you should take care of your own children before you try to adopt strangers.
2. If you want to live in my house, you have to live by my rules.
3. If you’re living in my house and don’t want to live by my rules, it’s well within my right to ask you to leave.
4. Human rights apply to everyone.
5. The Preamble to The Constitution of The United States begins with “We, the People of the United States”. The Constitution does not apply to illegal immigrants.
6. The Bill of Rights are Amendments to The Constitution of The United States. It does not apply to illegal immigrants.
I get very angry when I someone suggests that illegal immigrants should have the same rights as naturalized or American-born citizens. I get angry when a state with an immigration problem gets slapped for trying to protect their own because the government can’t or won’t. I get angry when politicians campaign on lax immigration policies to get votes. I get angry when I have to provide proof of citizenship to my employer while the government says that requiring the same of potential illegals is racial profiling.
I’m all for giving immigrants a reasonable and open path to citizenship, but my biggest fear is that this is another one of those issues where the law applies only to law-abiding citizens… so I’m also in favor of giving violators a speedy trip back to where they came from. We have immigration laws. We need to fix the ones that are broken, establish news ones that make sense and right or wrong, enforce them all.
And to all those who believe we should just open our doors to anyone who wants to be here, my message is simple: you came, you’ve seen The New World… now go home.
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Thank you for sharing your personal story. In my experience, your perspective matches that of most 1st and 2nd generation naturalized immigrants to America. They worked hard and waited long for their citizenship, and they expect others to do the same.
Can we agree that we need comprehensive legislation that includes both better enforcement and quota reform?
Can we agree that any politician who waffles on either of these points, emphasizes one and ignores the other, or tries to break the 2 issues into separate legislation, will not be getting our vote?
And, can we agree that any politician who commits to doing this, but doesn’t explain to us how he is going to do it, isn’t getting our vote either?
Let’s face it, if we can all agree what we are going to get done, the thing we need to debate is how we are going to get it done. It’s time for our politicians to share that level of detail with us, to submit it to the control of our democracy, and to commit not just to general principals but specific actions.
How about they commit to this? Even this level of detail seems pretty simple to me.
Congress can…
Decide how many of the current 10 million illegal immigrants we need and want in this country. It’s probably a high percentage, like 6 million or 8 million. Also decide how many we need and want as citizens, and how many we need and want as documented workers. We should take their demand for citizenship or worker status as part of the equation.
Create a path to full citizenship or documented worker for that number of immigrants. (I know some people would really like to see them leave here and come back in. But I am not sure that’s any more enforceable or efficient than just tracking them down where they are. I’m standing on practicalities here, not principals.)
Make the path to citizenship considerably harder to achieve, with more frequent check-ins, acheivables, and milestones. Make the path to worker status relatively easy to achieve, but also set per-visit, lifetime, and required-egress time limits, and make worker status actually impede your path to citizenship.
Protect citizens such that, if there is a question of citizenship status, certain additional verifications must be performed within a certain time period, or the subject will be considered a citizen until concretely proven otherwise.
Give Border Patrol, FBI and local law enforcement more money to spend on enforcement. And do it with few or no strings attached. It’s the job of the executive branch and of those agencies to know how to do the job best. We don’t need micro-management from Congress.
The Executive Branch can…
Put that money into the basics we already have — find, verify, remove — with our existing agencies — Border Patrol, FBI, and local law enforcement.
Enable rapid sharing of appropriate military technologies — surveillance drones, cargo scanners — with these agencies.
Enable rapid sharing of intelligence amongst these agencies and others such as the CIA, NSA, and military.
Empower and fund FBI, DoJ and local law enforcement to go after employers of illegal immigrants.
Create a national system for quickly verifying the citizenship status of an alleged criminal in custody.
Work with international agencies to prevent illegal ingress.
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I’m almost in agreement. I would love to see local law enforcement empowered to enforce immigration laws, but they must be required to operate within clear, unambiguous, federally sanctioned guidelines that will ensure consistency across state lines. That’s as much for their protection against claims of bias as it is for everyone else.
Until recently, the New Hampshire State Police used a loophole in our state law to arrest and hold illegal immigrants on criminal trespassing charges. Long story short, a case was heard by the NH Supreme Court , they found in favor of the plaintiff and the NHSP can no longer hide behind that loophole. If the NHSP had been empowered to uphold a federal law, there would have been no need to hide behind such a loophole in the first place.
A quick comment about funding. I don’t have stats available, but it makes sense that the border states are the ones with the biggest issue, so that would be the most reasonable place to start. It also makes sense that if there is a so-called surge, many of the law-abiding immigrants who are here illegally would respond by taking measures to change their status. I think that has one big side effect: it gets them in the system — after all, they’re the ones we most likely want to keep — but it opens the door to come down hard on the others.
In a nutshell, the startup costs should be significantly higher than the maintenance costs if the execution is quick, efficient and successful.
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