any thoughts on the Arizona Immigration law ?
Well, since I live in southern Arizona and am 30 miles north of the Mexican Border, I do see lots of US Border Patrol Activity. I also worked on the "virtual fence" but quit when I realized it was a colisial waste of tax money . Now I am a systems engineer for a well known company
Many people like the new law and feel the federal government is not doing it's part. I's possible that the Arizona law will be copied in other states. The Arizona governor's popularity sky rocketed after the law was signed. A prominent rancher in southeastern Arizona was murdered by illegals, probalby drug smugglers, this only added fuel to the fire
JOHN
Well, since I live in southern Arizona and am 30 miles north of the Mexican Border, I do see lots of US Border Patrol Activity. I also worked on the "virtual fence" but quit when I realized it was a colisial waste of tax money . Now I am a systems engineer for a well known company
Many people like the new law and feel the federal government is not doing it's part. I's possible that the Arizona law will be copied in other states. The Arizona governor's popularity sky rocketed after the law was signed. A prominent rancher in southeastern Arizona was murdered by illegals, probalby drug smugglers, this only added fuel to the fire
JOHN
Perhaps getting yokels to cower at the thought of gay marriage somehow having a negative impact on the lives of straight couples is no longer enough. Immigrants are the new target for cheap shots by the kind of villains intent on motivating voter behavior based on fear and hatred rather than knowledge and hope. After all, violence north of the border has been on a long trend of general decline. The actual danger of violent crime or property crime on the north side of the U.S.-Mexico border is less than it was 10 years ago and far far less than it was in the 1970s.
Of course, you wouldn't know this from the hysterical prattlings of nimrods who spit out the word "illegals" the same way self-styled patriots of 1930s Germany spat out the word "Jew." Among the insecure and uneducated, frustrated in part by hard economic times and in part by an enormous array of right-wing propaganda presented in the guise of journalism, being scared of people who are different, lobbing hate at people who are different -- this is the stuff of today's most dangerous self-styled patriots.
The framers of the U.S. Constitution established that birth on American ground conveyed automatic citizenship in part because that simply makes good sense and in part because it provides a hard Constitutional barrier beyond which xenophobic rabble cannot legislate. I believe those same Founding Fathers would have been appalled to hear of a nationality-based quota system that deliberately excludes millions of people simply seeking opportunities for honest work from joining American society. Yet you do not have to be in the lunatic fringe of American politics to parrot that "first we must secure the border, then we can talk about immigration reforms" nonsense.
There is no magical force field that could "secure the border" in such a way as race-baiting ignoramuses demand that it must be. On the other hand, serious reform that accommodates honest job-seekers in an effective and efficient way would eliminate 99% of the demand for illegal border crossing. With legitimate channels to handle the tide of migrant labor, the unavoidably finite and imperfect resources available for border security could concentrate on legitimate concerns like smuggling and criminal infiltration. The only viable path to anything resembling a major upgrade in border security is to eliminate the the circumstances that cause thousands of individuals each and every month to cross northward illegally for nothing more insidious than the chance to be paid for doing real work.
The existing situation is not actually a growing or major source of danger to the American people. Yet it must be spun as such because fear and hatred is the lifeblood of right-wing politics the world over. If people look different, sound different, worship differently, and/or enjoy ethnic food of some sort; it is that much easier for unscrupulous fearmongers to convince ignorant white men that these alien beings are some sort of threat to the homeland. To put it simply, people with zero to offer in the way of a constructive agenda for American public policy must instead motivate support for a destructive agenda in order to win elections. It looks like 2010, perhaps even 2012, will see labor migrants from Latin America as the "not like us" scapegoat used to intensify fears and hatreds among the very worst sort of U.S. voters. It is a shameful abuse of our political process, but I suppose it is also much easier than identifying real social problems and crafting effective policy solutions to those problems.
Regards,
messydom
Of course, you wouldn't know this from the hysterical prattlings of nimrods who spit out the word "illegals" the same way self-styled patriots of 1930s Germany spat out the word "Jew." Among the insecure and uneducated, frustrated in part by hard economic times and in part by an enormous array of right-wing propaganda presented in the guise of journalism, being scared of people who are different, lobbing hate at people who are different -- this is the stuff of today's most dangerous self-styled patriots.
The framers of the U.S. Constitution established that birth on American ground conveyed automatic citizenship in part because that simply makes good sense and in part because it provides a hard Constitutional barrier beyond which xenophobic rabble cannot legislate. I believe those same Founding Fathers would have been appalled to hear of a nationality-based quota system that deliberately excludes millions of people simply seeking opportunities for honest work from joining American society. Yet you do not have to be in the lunatic fringe of American politics to parrot that "first we must secure the border, then we can talk about immigration reforms" nonsense.
There is no magical force field that could "secure the border" in such a way as race-baiting ignoramuses demand that it must be. On the other hand, serious reform that accommodates honest job-seekers in an effective and efficient way would eliminate 99% of the demand for illegal border crossing. With legitimate channels to handle the tide of migrant labor, the unavoidably finite and imperfect resources available for border security could concentrate on legitimate concerns like smuggling and criminal infiltration. The only viable path to anything resembling a major upgrade in border security is to eliminate the the circumstances that cause thousands of individuals each and every month to cross northward illegally for nothing more insidious than the chance to be paid for doing real work.
The existing situation is not actually a growing or major source of danger to the American people. Yet it must be spun as such because fear and hatred is the lifeblood of right-wing politics the world over. If people look different, sound different, worship differently, and/or enjoy ethnic food of some sort; it is that much easier for unscrupulous fearmongers to convince ignorant white men that these alien beings are some sort of threat to the homeland. To put it simply, people with zero to offer in the way of a constructive agenda for American public policy must instead motivate support for a destructive agenda in order to win elections. It looks like 2010, perhaps even 2012, will see labor migrants from Latin America as the "not like us" scapegoat used to intensify fears and hatreds among the very worst sort of U.S. voters. It is a shameful abuse of our political process, but I suppose it is also much easier than identifying real social problems and crafting effective policy solutions to those problems.
Regards,
messydom
You think immigration is bad? Just check out how much debt our government is putting us in. Nothing we have ever dealt with will even compare to what we're going to go through financially. At least China will come after these illegals when america can't pay the interest on the debt we owe china.
Why are people coming here in the first place? BECAUSE IT'S BETTER TO BE POOR IN AMERICAN THAN ANY OTHER NATION IN THE WORLD!!!! I don't know how many other countries subsidize poverty,but we do it more than any country I know of.
Second, these people will fraud the healthcare system like all those prisoners stole money from mortgage programs (way to go government).
Third, do we not realize what will ultimately bring down this country? The fact that we DON'T HAVE ENOUGH RESOURCES TO SATISFY EVERYONE'S NEEDS/WANTS.
Our population will continue to grow no matter how good or bad things are. We'll burn through resources faster than they can be replenished.
Nuff said.....
Why are people coming here in the first place? BECAUSE IT'S BETTER TO BE POOR IN AMERICAN THAN ANY OTHER NATION IN THE WORLD!!!! I don't know how many other countries subsidize poverty,but we do it more than any country I know of.
Second, these people will fraud the healthcare system like all those prisoners stole money from mortgage programs (way to go government).
Third, do we not realize what will ultimately bring down this country? The fact that we DON'T HAVE ENOUGH RESOURCES TO SATISFY EVERYONE'S NEEDS/WANTS.
Our population will continue to grow no matter how good or bad things are. We'll burn through resources faster than they can be replenished.
Nuff said.....
I agree government debt is out of control... I have to control m expenses... Problem with Govt is they don't know how to control anything. If a govt entity is short on money
they raise fees or taxes instead of cutting costs....
with Illegals, I have a solution.. any Illegal caught send to Planned parenthood, then send back so they can't come back and pop babies that cost all of us in healthcare etc.... or just take em into the back office and have a surgeon on standby
being in southern Arizona I see lots of border patrol and lots of illegals too
In the country but not a tourist and don't speak the language, then you are by defination an illegal. I lived in Germany and I spoke German... practice what i preach
they raise fees or taxes instead of cutting costs....
with Illegals, I have a solution.. any Illegal caught send to Planned parenthood, then send back so they can't come back and pop babies that cost all of us in healthcare etc.... or just take em into the back office and have a surgeon on standby
being in southern Arizona I see lots of border patrol and lots of illegals too
In the country but not a tourist and don't speak the language, then you are by defination an illegal. I lived in Germany and I spoke German... practice what i preach
Jinxguy1000, I beg of you please, you would do yourself a world of good to shut out whatever crazy media gives you this "sky is falling" impression of our economy and society. Fear and hatred are great ways to build a large audience, which in turn can be used to produce a large fortune. Viewers/listeners/readers often like the rush of thinking they have some sort of special understanding that "the mainstream" lacks. However, fear and hatred never ever inspire sensible political opinions. They are the stuff of warmongers and segregationists. They are the strings by which millions upon millions of Americans can be puppeteered into supporting a political agenda that makes no sense at all to voters endowed with at least a small measure of courage and a small measure of hope. In short, supporters of the Arizona law and similar crackdowns lack any special understanding, but they sure do have a special misunderstanding clouding their judgement.
Roughly half of the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. pays taxes, including Social Security payroll taxes, though virtually none of these same immigrants are on track to attempt to collect Social Security benefits in their old age. As far as the federal government's financial outlook is concerned, illegal immigrants improve the bottom line. It is true that the same cannot be said for state and local governments. Not all nor even most illegal immigrants make significant use of our welfare system. Alas, our barbaric approach to health care and the exorbitant cost of emergency medicine (as opposed to preventative and primary care) means that many state and local governments do come out behind from the costs of the minority that have no alternative to emergency relief. Catching up with the rest of the civilized world on health care policy would solve this, though so too would immigration reform.
If we could scrap the unbelievably stupid nationality-based quota system and offer some sort of legitimate path to opportunity for every honest job-seeker headed north across the Rio Grande, this would clear all up easily enough. Immigrant laborers are criminals for lack of a legal path, not because the legal immigration is a realistic option for them and they just enjoy crime so much. As Ronald Reagan proved with his nationwide amnesty in 1986, our nation's illegal immigrants would be happy to complete registration procedures, comply with all tax laws, and integrate smoothly into our society. Even state governments would come out ahead on the deal if only our absurdly counterproductive quota system were replaced with a body of policy that welcomed honest workers and did not place impose draconian limitations based on nationality.
It is both obvious and extreme bullshit to assert that more than a very tiny fraction of illegal immigrants come to America to benefit from our laughably inadequate social safety net. The overwhelming majority of immigrants today, as has always been with our nation, seek opportunity through hard work. They come here and actually do this hard work. This cheap labor means that we all pay less for our food than we otherwise would. Construction is often less costly but no less safe for the input of these workers. The single biggest impact labor immigrants have on our economy is an overall increase in the purchasing power of American consumers. A non-tiny fraction of these immigrants do send money to foreign families or take money with them on leaving our nation, but the value of this departing paper is far less than the value of the work they accomplish here. That value stays in our society and enriches us all.
This will probably be hard to absorb for someone in the thrall of Glenn Beck/Rush Limbaugh/whoever else is stoking these absurd and baseless fears, but the United States is actually in a fairly strong financial position. Our national debt remains smaller than a single year of GDP! The situation is akin to a homeowner with a $140,000/year income and a $130,000 mortgage balance. Just as most nations legitimately envy our collective wealth, most individuals would be envious of a man in that position. Yet that is the full scope of the problem posed by deficit spending and our federal debt. A debt-free position certainly is more desirable, but the U.S. is not at all headed down the Greek path (which was more akin to a man with a $50,000/year income owing $500,000 on a mortgage) and we are not remotely on track toward federal insolvency.
Fearmongering about public debt is a traditional ploy Republican partisans have used for generations to scare gullible voters into opposing Democratic spending initiatives. Anyone with more intellect than a concussed bee can observe this to be true, because the same Chicken Little rhetoric that surrounds us today was nowhere to be found during the most recent eight years of unapologetically rampant spending in support of Republican initiatives. Massive domestic security spending to combat a threat that, in its worst month, still failed to be as deadly as the common automobile? -- no problem. A major military intervention in a place already known as "the graveyard of empires?" -- put it on our tab. Five times that much spending on a war of pure choice against a rigorously inspected non-threat? -- spare no expense. Revising Medicare to channel an endless fountain of public money to large pharmaceutical corporations? -- yeah, go for it. Baby steps to address a social problem that kills over 40,000 Americans per year? -- wait, a Democrat wants to do it! He must be stopped or our way of life is ruined!
Fear and hatred are the only means to rally support for this sort of thinking, because people smart enough to avoid fear and hatred are invariably smart enough to see right through such blatant and obvious lies. It takes strong dark emotion to muddle millions of minds into thinking that now, when our private sector has the most to gain from public spending and tax cuts for the working class, is the time when belt-tightening of the federal government is urgently needed. The myth that immigrants are either a major factor or (as far as the federal balance book goes) a net negative is part of the deception needed to keep this fear and anger clouding the minds of those unwilling or unable to face politics from a rational fact-based perspective. Again, our debt still falls short of a single year of GDP. The outlook is all doom and gloom only for those who choose a nightmarish fiction over the grown-up embrace of reality.
Make a better choice. There are news sources that produce propaganda only rarely and by coincidence, rather than constantly and by design. There are pundits who base their patriotism on a hope for a better tomorrow rather than crybaby alarmism about the non-problems of today. Illegal immigration is a problem that works well for hatemongers because the "not like us" factor makes it easy to demonize foreigners in the eyes of insecure white men. However, that "problem" is actually a slightly positive factor in terms of federal spending vs. revenues, and only a negative for some state and local governments because dumbass race-baiters poison the well on this issue. It is not politically viable to take a bold and smart step like President Reagan once did because of all the fear and hatred addling the minds of people who, while earnest in their love of country, are horribly misinformed and typically motivated by emotions that cannot coexist with rational thought.
I agree that the federal government is not doing its job on the immigration issue. Yet it could easily do its job if a practical legal channel to accommodate honest workers existed. The Arizona law represents a hate-inspired crackdown on an already vulnerable group. It is not a solution, but a worsening of the problem. It was motivated by know-nothing activists and downright villainous politicians willing to capitalize on fear of growing problems when those problems (north of the border violence, undocumented foreign laborers, etc.) were, and continue to be, on a trend of marked decline. Ditch the fear and hatred, give reason a fair shake, and in the end it becomes impossible to continue spitting out the term "illegals" as a pejorative. However, it does then become possible to pursue grown-up effective serious public policy that harnesses this tide of valuable labor while also creating the only plausible scenario in which real border security upgrades becomes attainable goals.
Regards,
messydom
Roughly half of the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. pays taxes, including Social Security payroll taxes, though virtually none of these same immigrants are on track to attempt to collect Social Security benefits in their old age. As far as the federal government's financial outlook is concerned, illegal immigrants improve the bottom line. It is true that the same cannot be said for state and local governments. Not all nor even most illegal immigrants make significant use of our welfare system. Alas, our barbaric approach to health care and the exorbitant cost of emergency medicine (as opposed to preventative and primary care) means that many state and local governments do come out behind from the costs of the minority that have no alternative to emergency relief. Catching up with the rest of the civilized world on health care policy would solve this, though so too would immigration reform.
If we could scrap the unbelievably stupid nationality-based quota system and offer some sort of legitimate path to opportunity for every honest job-seeker headed north across the Rio Grande, this would clear all up easily enough. Immigrant laborers are criminals for lack of a legal path, not because the legal immigration is a realistic option for them and they just enjoy crime so much. As Ronald Reagan proved with his nationwide amnesty in 1986, our nation's illegal immigrants would be happy to complete registration procedures, comply with all tax laws, and integrate smoothly into our society. Even state governments would come out ahead on the deal if only our absurdly counterproductive quota system were replaced with a body of policy that welcomed honest workers and did not place impose draconian limitations based on nationality.
It is both obvious and extreme bullshit to assert that more than a very tiny fraction of illegal immigrants come to America to benefit from our laughably inadequate social safety net. The overwhelming majority of immigrants today, as has always been with our nation, seek opportunity through hard work. They come here and actually do this hard work. This cheap labor means that we all pay less for our food than we otherwise would. Construction is often less costly but no less safe for the input of these workers. The single biggest impact labor immigrants have on our economy is an overall increase in the purchasing power of American consumers. A non-tiny fraction of these immigrants do send money to foreign families or take money with them on leaving our nation, but the value of this departing paper is far less than the value of the work they accomplish here. That value stays in our society and enriches us all.
This will probably be hard to absorb for someone in the thrall of Glenn Beck/Rush Limbaugh/whoever else is stoking these absurd and baseless fears, but the United States is actually in a fairly strong financial position. Our national debt remains smaller than a single year of GDP! The situation is akin to a homeowner with a $140,000/year income and a $130,000 mortgage balance. Just as most nations legitimately envy our collective wealth, most individuals would be envious of a man in that position. Yet that is the full scope of the problem posed by deficit spending and our federal debt. A debt-free position certainly is more desirable, but the U.S. is not at all headed down the Greek path (which was more akin to a man with a $50,000/year income owing $500,000 on a mortgage) and we are not remotely on track toward federal insolvency.
Fearmongering about public debt is a traditional ploy Republican partisans have used for generations to scare gullible voters into opposing Democratic spending initiatives. Anyone with more intellect than a concussed bee can observe this to be true, because the same Chicken Little rhetoric that surrounds us today was nowhere to be found during the most recent eight years of unapologetically rampant spending in support of Republican initiatives. Massive domestic security spending to combat a threat that, in its worst month, still failed to be as deadly as the common automobile? -- no problem. A major military intervention in a place already known as "the graveyard of empires?" -- put it on our tab. Five times that much spending on a war of pure choice against a rigorously inspected non-threat? -- spare no expense. Revising Medicare to channel an endless fountain of public money to large pharmaceutical corporations? -- yeah, go for it. Baby steps to address a social problem that kills over 40,000 Americans per year? -- wait, a Democrat wants to do it! He must be stopped or our way of life is ruined!
Fear and hatred are the only means to rally support for this sort of thinking, because people smart enough to avoid fear and hatred are invariably smart enough to see right through such blatant and obvious lies. It takes strong dark emotion to muddle millions of minds into thinking that now, when our private sector has the most to gain from public spending and tax cuts for the working class, is the time when belt-tightening of the federal government is urgently needed. The myth that immigrants are either a major factor or (as far as the federal balance book goes) a net negative is part of the deception needed to keep this fear and anger clouding the minds of those unwilling or unable to face politics from a rational fact-based perspective. Again, our debt still falls short of a single year of GDP. The outlook is all doom and gloom only for those who choose a nightmarish fiction over the grown-up embrace of reality.
Make a better choice. There are news sources that produce propaganda only rarely and by coincidence, rather than constantly and by design. There are pundits who base their patriotism on a hope for a better tomorrow rather than crybaby alarmism about the non-problems of today. Illegal immigration is a problem that works well for hatemongers because the "not like us" factor makes it easy to demonize foreigners in the eyes of insecure white men. However, that "problem" is actually a slightly positive factor in terms of federal spending vs. revenues, and only a negative for some state and local governments because dumbass race-baiters poison the well on this issue. It is not politically viable to take a bold and smart step like President Reagan once did because of all the fear and hatred addling the minds of people who, while earnest in their love of country, are horribly misinformed and typically motivated by emotions that cannot coexist with rational thought.
I agree that the federal government is not doing its job on the immigration issue. Yet it could easily do its job if a practical legal channel to accommodate honest workers existed. The Arizona law represents a hate-inspired crackdown on an already vulnerable group. It is not a solution, but a worsening of the problem. It was motivated by know-nothing activists and downright villainous politicians willing to capitalize on fear of growing problems when those problems (north of the border violence, undocumented foreign laborers, etc.) were, and continue to be, on a trend of marked decline. Ditch the fear and hatred, give reason a fair shake, and in the end it becomes impossible to continue spitting out the term "illegals" as a pejorative. However, it does then become possible to pursue grown-up effective serious public policy that harnesses this tide of valuable labor while also creating the only plausible scenario in which real border security upgrades becomes attainable goals.
Regards,
messydom
the Arizona law is just 16 pages and basically takes federal law and makes it a state law.
I live in southeastern Arizona 30 miles north of the Mexican Border. A rancher who was merely tending his ranch was killed by a drug smuggler, a sheriff's deputy was shot by some smugglers. Paths to legal citizenship exist. I know several people who have gone down that path.
I live in southeastern Arizona 30 miles north of the Mexican Border. A rancher who was merely tending his ranch was killed by a drug smuggler, a sheriff's deputy was shot by some smugglers. Paths to legal citizenship exist. I know several people who have gone down that path.
Zero violence is a noble goal, but no one has any serious proposals to get any nation anywhere near that ideal. The nearest proper city to my location has had 6 murders and over 60 shootings in the past three months -- an unprecedented spree of violence for the area. Still, there is little that can reasonably be inferred about long term social trends from that sort of data (though the relative lack of Latin American immigrants to this area would make it hard to pin the killings on Mexican gangsters.) If you want to get serious about neutralizing organized crime, then get serious about abolishing vice laws. Criminal justice responses to the public health problems never accomplish anything more than to enrich gangsters and promote violence. This is true in all places for people of all ethnicities whenever adult participation in a victimless act is criminalized.
As far as the legal path goes, our nation is kind enough to offer 20,000 opportunities each year to somewhere between 500,000 and 1 milllion foreigners who wish to do work in America. Again, anecdotal evidence may be real, but it is generally not very informative. I know several people who own motorcycles and worship at synagogues. Does buying a hog make you Jewish? (No, though in these instances, kosher dietary laws were not violated.
) I would never argue that no one makes it through the legal channel available today, but I do argue that our system arbitrarily excludes over 90% of legitimate applicants. That problem can be solved in a painless way that will promote American prosperity.
What sort of serious informed adult demands that we as a nation postpone such a step forward until a magical force field accomplishes the impossible at the U.S.-Mexico border? I am sure many reasonable people think "well, I know there will never be zero violent incidents or zero unauthorized crossings, but I just want things to be better than they are today." As it happens, things have been getting better all the time. It is yellow journalism and blatant race-baiting punditry that generates the perception of a growing problem. Most of us have blissfully forgotten about the final bizarre years of Lou Dobb's career, but our national media environment continues to be polluted by countless other fearmongers peddling similar misinformation.
If you really want things to get better, then start by looking at things as they actually are rather than things as unscrupulous politicians or alarmist activists misrepresent them. The underlying reality is that today's violence is less frequent than it was ten years ago and wildly reduced from the levels documented during the Nixon years. The underlying reality is that ruinous shenanigans on Wall Street have made this nation a less desirable destination for labor migrants, steadily driving down the number of illegal aliens headed north in search of work. The only reality to fear here is that the worst elements in our media and civic life will continue to make our citizens more fearful and more hateful. Some do this because they can sell their audience to advertisers. Others do it because fearful hateful people have much difficulty voting like thoughtful people.
What is the crowning achievement to date of all this nonsense? -- a law that criminalizes an unwillingness or inability to document citizenship on demand. The very windbags calling the current President fascist actively support a policy that is among the universal characteristics of fascist rule. One of the nice things about living in a free society is the ability to walk down the street without worry that men with guns and badges will spot check your papers. Even if it were not hysterical misinformation to suggest that the shrinking problems on our border were somehow growing instead, this is a truly horrible solution. Federal authorities (aside from agents literally working the border) do not randomly ask for documentation. They conduct careful investigations, targeting people and places based on reasonable suspicion of an immigration law violation.
By contrast, most city cops and state troopers routinely interact with the general public in many different contexts. For good reason, they are unfocused, and thus far more likely to query or even arrest actual American citizens who happen to be walking around without documentation. Anyone who claims to be a libertarian with one breath and endorses an element of fascism with another must be very confused. Arizona could have contributed state resources to increase the number of immigration judges and ICE agents at work in that state. Arizona could have dramatically raised the penalties for the employment of undocumented workers. Instead, the governor and state legislature decided to make life worse for the state's most vulnerable inhabitants while creating a probable hassle for some U.S. citizens in Arizona.
The law is a classic response to hate and fear, as it has been every other place on Earth such laws have been passed. The only good it does is to placate the anger of the ignorant. When there are alternatives that could do some actual good, why tolerate this abominable application of political power? Choice is a part of living in a democracy. I appreciate that, short of violating the Constitution, the people of Arizona have a choice to make life harder for undocumented aliens in their state.
Yet it is also possible to make better choices. Would that dead rancher be alive today if his murderers and other criminals were not mere drops in a river of illegal border transits? There is no way to answer that question. However, we can know that if a legal channel existed to accommodate all of the demand for honest American opportunities, border security resources would not be diluted by that river of humanity. To me, there is much more satisfaction in improving the situation than in making strangers feel miserable. I often wonder why that perspective is so uncommon when it comes to modern sentiments about immigration.
Regards,
messydom
As far as the legal path goes, our nation is kind enough to offer 20,000 opportunities each year to somewhere between 500,000 and 1 milllion foreigners who wish to do work in America. Again, anecdotal evidence may be real, but it is generally not very informative. I know several people who own motorcycles and worship at synagogues. Does buying a hog make you Jewish? (No, though in these instances, kosher dietary laws were not violated.
) I would never argue that no one makes it through the legal channel available today, but I do argue that our system arbitrarily excludes over 90% of legitimate applicants. That problem can be solved in a painless way that will promote American prosperity.
What sort of serious informed adult demands that we as a nation postpone such a step forward until a magical force field accomplishes the impossible at the U.S.-Mexico border? I am sure many reasonable people think "well, I know there will never be zero violent incidents or zero unauthorized crossings, but I just want things to be better than they are today." As it happens, things have been getting better all the time. It is yellow journalism and blatant race-baiting punditry that generates the perception of a growing problem. Most of us have blissfully forgotten about the final bizarre years of Lou Dobb's career, but our national media environment continues to be polluted by countless other fearmongers peddling similar misinformation.
If you really want things to get better, then start by looking at things as they actually are rather than things as unscrupulous politicians or alarmist activists misrepresent them. The underlying reality is that today's violence is less frequent than it was ten years ago and wildly reduced from the levels documented during the Nixon years. The underlying reality is that ruinous shenanigans on Wall Street have made this nation a less desirable destination for labor migrants, steadily driving down the number of illegal aliens headed north in search of work. The only reality to fear here is that the worst elements in our media and civic life will continue to make our citizens more fearful and more hateful. Some do this because they can sell their audience to advertisers. Others do it because fearful hateful people have much difficulty voting like thoughtful people.
What is the crowning achievement to date of all this nonsense? -- a law that criminalizes an unwillingness or inability to document citizenship on demand. The very windbags calling the current President fascist actively support a policy that is among the universal characteristics of fascist rule. One of the nice things about living in a free society is the ability to walk down the street without worry that men with guns and badges will spot check your papers. Even if it were not hysterical misinformation to suggest that the shrinking problems on our border were somehow growing instead, this is a truly horrible solution. Federal authorities (aside from agents literally working the border) do not randomly ask for documentation. They conduct careful investigations, targeting people and places based on reasonable suspicion of an immigration law violation.
By contrast, most city cops and state troopers routinely interact with the general public in many different contexts. For good reason, they are unfocused, and thus far more likely to query or even arrest actual American citizens who happen to be walking around without documentation. Anyone who claims to be a libertarian with one breath and endorses an element of fascism with another must be very confused. Arizona could have contributed state resources to increase the number of immigration judges and ICE agents at work in that state. Arizona could have dramatically raised the penalties for the employment of undocumented workers. Instead, the governor and state legislature decided to make life worse for the state's most vulnerable inhabitants while creating a probable hassle for some U.S. citizens in Arizona.
The law is a classic response to hate and fear, as it has been every other place on Earth such laws have been passed. The only good it does is to placate the anger of the ignorant. When there are alternatives that could do some actual good, why tolerate this abominable application of political power? Choice is a part of living in a democracy. I appreciate that, short of violating the Constitution, the people of Arizona have a choice to make life harder for undocumented aliens in their state.
Yet it is also possible to make better choices. Would that dead rancher be alive today if his murderers and other criminals were not mere drops in a river of illegal border transits? There is no way to answer that question. However, we can know that if a legal channel existed to accommodate all of the demand for honest American opportunities, border security resources would not be diluted by that river of humanity. To me, there is much more satisfaction in improving the situation than in making strangers feel miserable. I often wonder why that perspective is so uncommon when it comes to modern sentiments about immigration.
Regards,
messydom
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