Immigration

                                            Illegal Immigration

         Build a fence?  Deport the 15 million or so illegal immigrants who had the audacity to enter this country illegally.  Ruin the economy?  Take children out of school and send them somewhere with their parents?  Give the land back to those who owned it two centuries ago?  Give me a break and some sanity for a moment.

         The debate on illegal immigration is passionate, and if it were a simple problem we might have solved it by now one likes to think.  Our country was built on immigration, and this country is the beacon to countless millions of people who are wishing for a better life.  Illegal immigrants  have risked death, have tried to cross shark infested waters, have ridden in the backs of overcrowded trucks in the middle of deserts, all for a chance to find opportunity in this land.  How many of us would willing take a three day journey in a raft through shark infested waters to hope we land on the shores of the United States, knowing that if we are picked up by the coast guard, we will be deported back?  Giving up all that we know, for a chance at something we don’t know.  There must be a strong pull for people to leave all and to risk all, just to be in a country where they are a fugitive.

         In today’s political debate, we hear of sanction cities, and how this is bad.  This is apparently a city where if a crime is committed against an illegal alien, that person can report it to the police and not be deported.  This is assumed to be a bad thing because the illegal is not immediately deported back.  Is this any better than slavery?  But shouldn’t an illegal be sent home and shouldn’t a crime be punished?  Are we safer by not punishing either?  Are we safer on our roads when illegal immigrants drive but do not have licenses or insurance?  I know, what part of “illegal” didn’t I get the first time.

         Is it even feasible to send home 15 million people in any sane or logical manner over a period of 6 months as some have suggested?  Is this not as bad as other atrocities that we have witnessed throughout the ages?  Did the “rule of law” make it right to deprive our native Indians of their lands or really even justify the trafficking of human beings as slaves in the beginning of this nation?  Laws change because people change.  As a nation, or at least as a people, shouldn’t we at least discuss this issue that affects millions of lives with something more than rhetoric?

         We must control the borders somehow if we are ever to stem the problem, which has gotten much worse in recent years and will get much worse still if we find ourselves in a world wide depression such as the one in the thirties.  What is fifteen million today could easily be thirty million if the world goes into a depression.  As a people, I think it unrealistic and disingenuous to think we can deport back all of the millions of immigrants that came here illegally.  However, to get this problem in control we have to stop the illegal population from growing.

         Ultimately, it will not be fences that keep people out.  If someone is willing to risk all to get here, the fence will only deter those who see this as an easy thing to get into the country.  The desperate will still make the attempt.  Ultimately we have to develop a foreign policy with our neighbors that promotes industrial development and opportunities in their countries, so that people will not make such desperate attempts to risk all to come to the land of the free to be basically indentured servants.  Perhaps instead of talking about forced regime changes, we could talk about people changes.  When the Iron Curtain fell in the late eighties, it was a people change that ultimately led to the downfall of the government.

         This problem of illegals searching for a better life will not go away as long as there are huge differences in perceived opportunities amongst our nations, particularly those in the Americas.  The solution is not to cheapen the environment or lay waste to the American workers and industrial base so that all are equal.  The solution must be to help bring our neighbors and their countries forward so that we can have some sanity in our immigration policies.  We need a foreign policy that worries about the strength of our neighbors in the Americas, as that affects our own strength.  If their economic situation deteriorates, our illegal immigration problems mushroom.  Desperate people will take desperate measures regardless of the amount of fences and guns we put on the border.

         Almost 5% of our current population falls into the illegal immigrant status today.  This percentage continues to grow.  At some stage, we will need to look at immigration not from a “rule of law” point of view, as laws can be changed.  We will need to look at it from a humanity point of view, and start treating the problem with something more than political rhetoric that plays on the fears and passions of many, but does nothing to address the issue, to fix the issue, or even to have a decent discussion of the issue.  This nation fought a Civil War many years ago, partially because of slavery.  Better dialogue then might have saved millions of our forefathers.  I am hopeful that one day as a society we can get to a stage where we just don't ignore and then go to war.  This problem does have a solution.