Immigration: So What Exactly Is It Again That We Are Trying To Fix? (Part 1)

If you want to fix something, you first have to know what it is supposed to look like when it’s not broken. That goes for immigration as well.

But I wouldn’t call what is going on now fixing anything. They are trying to clean up a mess years in the making through neglect, political expediency, and willful disregard of the laws of the land. That same moral rebellion that was energized when the courts found religious and moral instruction and prayer and talk about God not proper in public schools and then later in public life at all found it hard to keep a lot of laws. It turned a blind eye to illegal immigration, probably because it was easy to exploit people with secrets to hide; and besides, if we threw off all those restraining personal rules, why should we strictly enforce rules on others, especially if no one is being hurt?

The real problem with immigration is that a rule (the 14th Amendment) made after the Civil War to give freed black slaves citizenship was transformed into free citizenship for anyone who could be born within our borders by any means. Now our politicians know, or should know, that this isn’t really the case because the children born here of foreign diplomats aren’t given citizenship. And even the Native Americans didn’t receive citizenship until the next century with an act of Congress.

So to say that children born here to illegal immigrants automatically become citizens is an abuse of our Constitution, wishful thinking, and an act of pandering to Hispanic voters. This is like telling people it is wrong to rob banks; but if you do, you can keep the money. Just pay taxes on it, of course.

We are providing a strong incentive for people to come here by whatever means because it is worth the risks they take to give their children the privileges of citizenship. That’s why people rob banks. They weigh the risks against the potential benefits and find it worth it.

And why do I get the impression that the major impetus behind immigration ‘reform’ today is that the Democrats feel they will have a lock on the votes from all these new voters? And why would that be? I would venture to say that the mere matter of not being citizens is not a stumbling block to Democrats for getting immigrants to vote. This is certainly the main reason they oppose voter ID laws.

What is being touted as immigration reform is really nothing of the sort. The children of illegals, brought here through no fault of their own, are given legal status. But then who will have the heart, or the gall, to send their parents back to their country of origin? So the parents get a pass as well.

This ‘reform’ will only try to clean up the mess of years of intentional indifference, only to let the problem reoccur down the road. I don’t believe them if or when they say this will be different. We’ll be back here again in another generation. If any legalization occurs before the borders are secure, the borders will never become secure.

And as long as we provide the incentive of free citizenship, we will always have an abundance of illegal immigrants.

Those who turn a blind eye to illegal immigration are strong on pointing out all the benefits of immigration, even illegal immigration. Indeed, there are benefits; but we need to look a little more closely at what is going on here.

The primary reason we need large numbers of immigrants today is that the people already living here are not reproducing in sufficient numbers to replace the population. So our populace would be gradually aging with fewer younger people to support the elderly. In the past, families supported their aged, but now we need more taxpaying workers to pay for our ever expanding government. So we should not be surprised that our government is in no hurry to slow down any form of immigration.

We’ve have been teaching our daughters to pursue careers more than families, so we should not be surprised that families are shrinking.

We are told of the need for immigrants because of their entrepreneurial spirit. But I see no reason to see the current crop of immigrants as more entrepreneurial than the rest of us. With promises of free medical care and citizenship for new born children, it is not just the entrepreneurs that we are attracting.

We used to favor immigrants who had qualities we were looking for. Now we seem to have little say in who comes in, though I have read that white Europeans are having a real hard time.

Some say that diversity is our strength. Well, yes and no. Diverse minds can bring new perspectives on solving common problems. But diverse minds can also have different goals, different values, and different ways of approaching life.

In the first case, they are united around a common goal. In the second, they are irremediably divided. Look at Washington D.C. today.

Our government is divided over two diametrically opposed views of how to run our country. There is no way to compromise on most issues. If one side says that we are taxed too high and spend too much, any compromise will have higher taxes and more spending. Just less of an increase.

We used to have more of a consensus on what America stands for, what it means to be an American. Our nation has lost its sense of what it is we actually stand for. The more diversity we have sought, the more we have cast aside our values to find the lowest common denominator. And that seems to be merely the fact that we all live in the same country. And that’s about it. So the more diverse our immigration base, the less we share of common values, common interests, and common identity.

Photo credit: luna715 (Creative Commons)