Immigration Madness
As I was sitting in the backyard this morning, enjoying a quiet spring morning, my thoughts were interupted by sirens, horn honking, and random cheers. When I went down the street to investigate, I found a group of approximately 50 hispanic high school students walking down the sidewalk, jumping on the bus-stop benches and trashcans, and waving the Mexican flag. I assume this group was heading to the capital to join in the protest. Interesting was the fact that this group of truant students was receiving an escort downtown by AISD police.
Now, perhaps I am wrong here, but I thought that we had truancy laws. If these kids want to skip school to join a protest (and don't misunderstand, I like the fact that SOMETHING has gotten the youth interested in political happenings), then they are truant and the school law enforcement has an obligation to return these students to campus. If they have decided to let this slide, then they CERTAINLY should not be providing security for their truancy.
This happening, among others, has had me thinking about our current national immigration debate, and the mass protests that have become a function of this debate. There are several things that I find fascinating and frustrated...
I should preface this by saying that I thought that the United States has laws relating to immigration and employment. Where is the enforcement of the existing laws?
I am fascinated by how the terminology that we use regarding those who have come into the country is no longer being used. Somewhere along the way, the term "illegal immigrant" has become a dirty word. I was watching some guy who was on Lou Dobbs who threw this term in with such offensive terms as kike, wop, and nigger (yes, he said nigger on air). Once upon a time, behavior that fell within the law was referred to "legal" and those behaviors that fell outside of the law was "illegal". There are 12 million people in this country who came in outside of the legal system. To me, these are illegal immigrants. It seems that the new accepted terminology is "undocumented workers". How do we apply this new terminology to those who have arrived outside of the law for other purposes? Do we now have "undocumented unemployed", "undocumented students" (those who have overstayed their student visas), "undocumented tourists" (overstayed a tourist visa), etc.? No matter what words one chooses to describe the situation, there are people from many countries in the United States outside of the law. This behavior is in violation of the law, thus "illegal".
I am fascinated by how those who are lobbying for full amnesty for those here illegally have been spinning anyone's unwillingness to offer forgiveness as racist or anti-immigrant behavior. I can't speak for others, but for me, this is simply about border security and law enforcement.
I am fascinated by the brazenness of the protests attempting to sway legislation. Now, I will conceed that I am not aware of the demographics of those attending the demostrations, but I will assume that, at least in California, that some percentage of those involved are not legal citizens, thus they do not have a vote in the system, and are flaunting there presence. My thought is that the INS should be attending these gathering and enforcing the existing laws.
I hate how that in this country, we have a knack for framing debates only in terms of two sides. Are you a Democrat or Republican? Are you for or against amnesty? Are you pro- or anti-immigrant? Are you pro-life or pro-choice? Are you with or against the terrorists? This seems to be how the debate regarding legislation designed to enforce border security and address the presence of the people who have illegally crossed that border since we last actually enforced our existing immigration lawsis becoming. It doesn't help that some plans go too far, such as the plan to make felons out of anyone here outside of the law. This benefits no one other than those who build and operate prisons. Let us not forget who picks up the bill for the incarceration of our felons.
I offer my own plan:
First, secure the border. Send in the National Guard with the orders to immediately secure the border. Once the border is secure, then fund the Border Patrol and the Customs Service to whatever level they feel is necessary to provide lasting border security. For example, if the Border Patrol wants to build a fence, then fund a fence. If agents are concerned about tunnels under the fence, then drop density sensors in the ground to detect the building of tunnels. This should not be up for debate.
Next, fund the INS to whatever level they require is necessary to enforce the existing immigration laws. While we are waiting for the effects of the funding for both the INS and the border security project to yield fruit, we tackle the issue of the people who are currently in the country illegally. We should announce that in one year, the INS will resume the old "La Migre" raids for the purposes of deporting illegals.
During this year, the United States will issue 6 month work visas to anyone currently in the country illegally. This will allow for the documentation of those currently off the books. Once the visa has been issued, the possessor of the visa must then abide by the terms of the visa. Once it expires, the possessor must apply for an extention or re-issue. Once the year period is up, the INS needs to begin enforcement of the existing immigration laws and deport anyone who has not been issued a visa.
Since the big corporations are a major part of the "guest worker" lobby, I suggest a national database for those companies that claim that they require foreign national workers to flesh out their workforces. These companies will have to register the positions they wish to fill, and then these positions will first be offered to those citizens currently in the unemployment system. If the position cannot be filled from that pool, then a foreign national applying for a work visa would then be matched with the employer's position.
Last, to ensure that foreign national workers are not exploited anymore than they already are, we need to raise the minimum wage. If someone holds a job in America, they need to earn more than what the existing wage is.
To pay for this plan and to provide further security along the border region (currently extremely dangerous as Mexican drug cartels are waging a territory war so brutal that Nuevo Laredo currently has no law enforcement beyond the Federalis), I propose that we amend our country's drug laws. We spend a huge amount of money to enfore our current cannibis laws, which is contributing to the violence along the border. It is time to legalize cannabis, regulate it's production, and then tax it to fund my above plan. This would allow both American and Mexican farmers a new crop to grow, reduce the amount of subsidies currently paid to Amercian farmers to not grow crops, and provide a new product a tobacco industry that ironically is heavily reliant on federal subsidies for survival.
Now, perhaps I am wrong here, but I thought that we had truancy laws. If these kids want to skip school to join a protest (and don't misunderstand, I like the fact that SOMETHING has gotten the youth interested in political happenings), then they are truant and the school law enforcement has an obligation to return these students to campus. If they have decided to let this slide, then they CERTAINLY should not be providing security for their truancy.
This happening, among others, has had me thinking about our current national immigration debate, and the mass protests that have become a function of this debate. There are several things that I find fascinating and frustrated...
I should preface this by saying that I thought that the United States has laws relating to immigration and employment. Where is the enforcement of the existing laws?
I am fascinated by how the terminology that we use regarding those who have come into the country is no longer being used. Somewhere along the way, the term "illegal immigrant" has become a dirty word. I was watching some guy who was on Lou Dobbs who threw this term in with such offensive terms as kike, wop, and nigger (yes, he said nigger on air). Once upon a time, behavior that fell within the law was referred to "legal" and those behaviors that fell outside of the law was "illegal". There are 12 million people in this country who came in outside of the legal system. To me, these are illegal immigrants. It seems that the new accepted terminology is "undocumented workers". How do we apply this new terminology to those who have arrived outside of the law for other purposes? Do we now have "undocumented unemployed", "undocumented students" (those who have overstayed their student visas), "undocumented tourists" (overstayed a tourist visa), etc.? No matter what words one chooses to describe the situation, there are people from many countries in the United States outside of the law. This behavior is in violation of the law, thus "illegal".
I am fascinated by how those who are lobbying for full amnesty for those here illegally have been spinning anyone's unwillingness to offer forgiveness as racist or anti-immigrant behavior. I can't speak for others, but for me, this is simply about border security and law enforcement.
I am fascinated by the brazenness of the protests attempting to sway legislation. Now, I will conceed that I am not aware of the demographics of those attending the demostrations, but I will assume that, at least in California, that some percentage of those involved are not legal citizens, thus they do not have a vote in the system, and are flaunting there presence. My thought is that the INS should be attending these gathering and enforcing the existing laws.
I hate how that in this country, we have a knack for framing debates only in terms of two sides. Are you a Democrat or Republican? Are you for or against amnesty? Are you pro- or anti-immigrant? Are you pro-life or pro-choice? Are you with or against the terrorists? This seems to be how the debate regarding legislation designed to enforce border security and address the presence of the people who have illegally crossed that border since we last actually enforced our existing immigration lawsis becoming. It doesn't help that some plans go too far, such as the plan to make felons out of anyone here outside of the law. This benefits no one other than those who build and operate prisons. Let us not forget who picks up the bill for the incarceration of our felons.
I offer my own plan:
First, secure the border. Send in the National Guard with the orders to immediately secure the border. Once the border is secure, then fund the Border Patrol and the Customs Service to whatever level they feel is necessary to provide lasting border security. For example, if the Border Patrol wants to build a fence, then fund a fence. If agents are concerned about tunnels under the fence, then drop density sensors in the ground to detect the building of tunnels. This should not be up for debate.
Next, fund the INS to whatever level they require is necessary to enforce the existing immigration laws. While we are waiting for the effects of the funding for both the INS and the border security project to yield fruit, we tackle the issue of the people who are currently in the country illegally. We should announce that in one year, the INS will resume the old "La Migre" raids for the purposes of deporting illegals.
During this year, the United States will issue 6 month work visas to anyone currently in the country illegally. This will allow for the documentation of those currently off the books. Once the visa has been issued, the possessor of the visa must then abide by the terms of the visa. Once it expires, the possessor must apply for an extention or re-issue. Once the year period is up, the INS needs to begin enforcement of the existing immigration laws and deport anyone who has not been issued a visa.
Since the big corporations are a major part of the "guest worker" lobby, I suggest a national database for those companies that claim that they require foreign national workers to flesh out their workforces. These companies will have to register the positions they wish to fill, and then these positions will first be offered to those citizens currently in the unemployment system. If the position cannot be filled from that pool, then a foreign national applying for a work visa would then be matched with the employer's position.
Last, to ensure that foreign national workers are not exploited anymore than they already are, we need to raise the minimum wage. If someone holds a job in America, they need to earn more than what the existing wage is.
To pay for this plan and to provide further security along the border region (currently extremely dangerous as Mexican drug cartels are waging a territory war so brutal that Nuevo Laredo currently has no law enforcement beyond the Federalis), I propose that we amend our country's drug laws. We spend a huge amount of money to enfore our current cannibis laws, which is contributing to the violence along the border. It is time to legalize cannabis, regulate it's production, and then tax it to fund my above plan. This would allow both American and Mexican farmers a new crop to grow, reduce the amount of subsidies currently paid to Amercian farmers to not grow crops, and provide a new product a tobacco industry that ironically is heavily reliant on federal subsidies for survival.
posted by rol-e at 10:15 AM
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