Personal Disclosure
Some personal disclosure
as I write on this subject. One of my
sons is part of the federal work force that is working without pay. So, for me this is personal. My son tries very hard to be apolitical and
he doesn’t like to engage in political discussions. He is a loyal and sacrificing American, a
combat veteran, and has an essential job in security for our nation. These are not his opinions as he is just
trying to do his job, take care of his family, and survive these difficult
times.
Some of the things I say will be vehemently
opposed by those who are partisan. They completely
support the president or adamantly oppose him, no matter what he does. I may fail in my attempt to take a neutral position
here, but I am sincere in seeking to honestly discuss and analyze what I think
is going on, and on some possible scenarios for what may happen, or could
happen.
First let me say that I think it is possible
for Americans to agree on two positions, one is that we ought to continue to be
a country that welcomes immigrants, refugees, and try to be a nation that is
not racist or xenophobic. Second, I
think we can admit we have an overwhelmingly too large population in our
country who have come here illegally, or have stayed here illegally. I don’t think those two positions are mutually
exclusive, although the extremists in political parties seem to oppose one of
those positions.
I need to give some commentary on both of
these items. First I will write about
illegal immigration vs. legal or needed immigration. Many Americans remember south of the border
interactions with fondness, not anger.
There has always been a need for additional farm labor, and much of it was
seasonal and temporary, and some became permanent. Many of these folks came from Mexico, and
with the South-West once belonging to Mexico and the U.S. having such a long
Latino heritage in the West it was not offensive, except to some.
Puerto Rico is part of the United States and
Puerto Ricans are Americans, so we have always had a strong Latino presence in
the northeast. Cuba has always had a
strong interaction with the U.S., and when it became Communist Cubans who fled from
there were immediately given asylum here due to cold war policies. Florida was heavily impacted by this and
Cubans are part of it’s heritage.
However, a huge group of folks from Latin
America began to come without papers, documentation, or permission early in
this (21st) century, and stayed. That trend has
grown increasingly from Central America.
This flow reached its peak around 2003 but the growth made a significant
demographic, cultural, educational and social service, (and thus political)
impact. Since then the flow has gone
down and this illegal group of immigrants has gone from 4.0% of the population
to 3.4% of the population (around 12.7 million according to the Pew Hispanic
Center). Not only that but apprehensions
of those crossing illegally went from 71-222,000 per month in the year 2000 to
20-40,000 by 2018. This is an amazing drop. In addition, when the economy went into
recession there were more “illegals” from Latin American leaving then there
were coming as many jobs disappeared.
One might say the “crisis” in border
crossings has largely diminished or that we are far more effective in stopping
it. But, that is not solving the problem
of the millions who have stayed by breaking the law. These are two different things and they need
to be differently approached for solutions.
Thus one might say the “wall” is more of a symbolic political stand on
the reality of illegal crossings rather than a crisis necessity. It is like closing the barn door after the
horse has left, though border security is a real need and has continued
importance.
Why should we be concerned about illegal
immigration, because many Americans do constitutionally (by character and
allegiance) not like people scoffing at our laws. Even when we are compassionate and care about
the suffering of people from other countries due to oppressive governments, religious
persecution, gang and criminal violence, and grinding poverty it is hard to
turn a blind eye to a process of illegality that starts with getting in without
permission, then forging documents, skirting social security and taxes, or
staying past an expired visa, then working an over-extended system of
immigration courts to extend those stays, and hiding out.
I for one do not give much credence to being
afraid of immigrants, legal or illegal, because of some supposed inherent
criminality. There are of course too
many stories of crime, but highlighting some cases to scare people for
political purposes is simplistic cynicism by political opportunists. Since we already have so much home grown
crime and home grown extremism these rather isolated stories seem to pale in
comparison. Since so many immigrants are
hardworking, (legal or illegal) is it hard to make an effective economic
argument against them, except when their economic involvement prevents
business, government, or individuals to look to our own (low skill) legal
population to do the work and incentivize that through education, training, and
higher wages. As someone who works with
inner city folk this is a concern of mine.
Solutions Suggested
So, I want our government to find a
practical process that speeds up the identification of those who are here
without documentation, find compassionate ideas and solutions for those
children who grew up here without choice of their own and are now culturally
American, send back to their country of origin those who have willfully and
illegally overstayed their visa or come without one, and use common sense about border security on
which we are already spending billions.
I know many of us will differ about what is common sense. I also want to stop or expose what are simply
racist and xenophobic responses to strangers and people with accents, which has
always been a dark under belly of our collective American experience.
Observations
We need immigrants and we need them for
several reasons. One is simply to be
true to our ideals and heritage as Americans, besides Native Americans and
African Americans (as opposed to immigrant Africans) we have always been a
nation of immigrants. Another is that we
need them economically, and a third is that we need them for our future and our
seniors. Americans are not replacing
themselves in the rate of births. We must
continue to grow that population in order to have workers to support an aging
population (yours truly included). If we
had not aborted so many of our children we would have an additional 40
something million people, but they are dead and we don’t have them.
Overwhelmingly immigrants are aspirational,
they work hard, they want to achieve what they think of as the “American Dream.” They are not losers, parasites, or deadbeats. We are in a war against religious extremism
that produces terrorism. This is related
to certain immigrant groups but some of it occurs in those who are here legally
as religious passions arise within them. We have the same problem with Americans who have
been here for generations when political passions arise within them. Where can we ship them, if we could identify
them? Vigilance against extremism and
terror are our constant challenge, and right now some of the people we pay to do
that aren’t getting paid.
Some of the driving force of President
Trump’s stand on the wall comes from the extreme fringe of his party. He will
find it difficult to compromise his stand because of them as they make the
biggest noise in the primaries. Indeed,
there are extreme fringes on both sides and they are both dangerous to the
Republic. Some of these people are
simply seditious traitors who don’t believe in government at all and have no problem
shutting any of it down. Some of these
folks are those that think people who blow up federal buildings are
patriots.
Even more conservatives are callous in
their approach to people who work for all of us, risk their lives for us at the
border, fighting crime, spies, and terror, risk their lives for us when out at
sea, and control those prisons which are built to isolate the dangerous and corrupt
from the rest of us. Yet they proclaim
themselves to be flag wavers while having little appreciation of what keeps our
lives safe, working, and feasible. They
are patriots who moan about taxes yet want the Coast Guard to come and rescue
them.
There is much that could be written about
the culture wars of our political parties.
Democrats have achieved much through judicial fiat and without majority
approval and this has made conservatives resentful and determined to use the
same politicization of judge selection (i.e., Teddy Kennedy and Borg) to stem
the tide of what they see as a cultural and moral erosion of values. At the same time, going back to the Warren
court, civil rights has come about by judicial action and that is and has been a
good thing for our country.
Unfortunately, Conservatives have seemed to
think that since government is “the problem” they can use heavy handed tactics
to force economic decisions from Congress without majority approval. We are a democracy, we vote in our
legislators by state, they constitutionally control the purse strings. In order to get them to agree on things they
must compromise and that is the art of politics. Today politics is actually hostage taking,
not negotiation or compromise. I get my
way or we kill what you want, or if necessary burn our collective house down,
or since we only have one horse and we want to go in two different directions
let me shoot the horse.
We Need A Compromise
I think we need a compromise. I think we need strong border security. I think the Congress has already voted a
compromise to give the President more than he is asking for right now, but also
with provisions for the “Dreamers” (is that not so?) Why can’t that bill be brought back up and
re-worked if necessary? The only reason
is to completely defeat one’s political enemies, and that is not politics but
demagoguery leading to dictatorship.
This is a political crisis, not a border one, created by our President
and only he can end it. If he wins
because he holds out longer than the Democrats I am afraid there will be some
horrible consequences for all of us. One
will most likely be a speedier path to impeachment.
To continue to demoralize some of our best Americans, some of the finest people we could find who are educated, trained, and committed to work for all of us is not only short sighted but extremely dumb. At what point do they stop working, walk away, and go find some way to feed their families? How can we make up for their present fears and anxiety, the ruin of their credit, and the disgust they must begin to feel for our present political leaders? Maybe if we had a national strike and not only those workers but everyone walked off their job for a day, so the border was left completely open, no food or drugs inspected, no one could fly or planes were left to crash, prisoners would be left to walk out of jail, those at sea left to drown, taxes uncollected and no elected officials allowed to be paid, what would that be like? I hope we don’t have to find out.
Now, by the way, I pray for our President, I
honor his office, and I pray for our government and our country as a
whole. I encourage you to do the same.
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