(sigh)
You know, I doubt seriously whether the issues surrounding immigration will be settled any time soon, but in the meantime it will be hacked to death by every politician, by would-be stalwarts for both sides of the coin and by folks like me who care deeply but are too lazy to pound the pavement for one side or the other. All I'm willing to do at this juncture is blog on about it. So here goes.
Right now the bill up for Senate debate rallies around the guest-worker proposal, which to me is a cop-out but probably necessary to quell the liberals. This program would provide legal status to millions of illegals and expand it for more illegals every year. This cannot be a positive in border security when giving a U.S. wannabe status once he makes it across the border. All we're saying is, "We'll look the other way until you crawl over the line." Ahhh, call me naive, call me shallow, even call me stupid; but I just don't get why we wouldn't encourage those to cross legally, obtain citizenship and be able to stop looking over their shoulder and reap all the benefits of the liberal programs in place in this country! Could it possibly be because states like California want to and in some cases WILL provide those things whether they're legal or not? Of course it is. Why should anyone looking to cross into this country go through the lengthy bureaucratic mess to obtain citizenship when he can enter California illegally, possibly have free medical care, possibly obtain public housing and food stamps, possibly obtain free public school education and even witness a movement to have his language become the language taught in those public schools? Why, indeed.
The outcome of Texas' 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe entitled public school education for all illegals, and the arguments for that are specious at best, but who am I to second-guess a Supreme Court Justice? California's Proposition 187 sought to limit an umbrella of benefits and services to illegals, but this was overturned by a federal court. I'm really not insensitive to these humanitarian issues...I just think we're wrong-headed once again in our approach to them.
Victor David Hanson's book, Mexifornia, is a significant read if you're interested. It's contemporaneous and offers up a slew of options for dealing with immigration issues in California. The sheer numbers of illegals in that state have and will continue to exacerbate the economy there and put great stress on social programs which struggle already to provide legitimate needs of legal residents. This book, and others like it, should be required reading for all of us so that we can reasonably debate immigration issues. It's not just the economy or humane issues any more which are pertinent. Issues of national security are also on the lam and need to be re-captured.
I'm not sure the Statue of Liberty's "Give me your tired, your poor..." had quite this outcome as its import. Pun intended.
(sigh)
3 comments:
Even as a liberal, I don't think the guest-worker program is an ideal option. Yet, I can't come up with any solution that isn't without just as many faults. Letting anyone/everyone in would send the economy into (worse) turmoil, but so would shipping them all away. And, I do have a hard time being hardline, knowing that all they want is a better life for their children - isn't that what brought most of us here?
As for the children of illegals in schools - I'm all for it. It's not the kids' fault, so they shouldn't be punished for it. And in school, they will learn English (some are in my classes)!
Yeah, Jill...you're right that it's not the kids' fault. But maybe, just maybe, if the parents knew their children would not be eligible for all the perks it's possible that they would consider entering LEGALLY. It's no incentive for doing things the right way when theren are no consequences to be paid for doing them the wrong way.
I've considered that, too - it makes sense, but again, it's punishing kids. (And not educating the kids would mean that they would end up probably hiding out as illegals as adults, AND be uneducated AND not speak English.)No solution is really that great.
If we could get the kids already here educated THEN get them to move back and help improve their home countries, perhaps eventually there would be less need for people to sneak across. Of course, with the way things are now, no one who makes it to the US wants to return to their previous lot in life.
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