Immigration Blues

You know what, "Ender's Game" is a load of crap.  I've been doing this blogger thing for six months now, and I have yet to settle any major international disputes, unite the world under any kind of political conflagration, or become Hegemon.  I really need a Demosthenes for my Locke...  At the very least, I should have at least been interviewed on Glenn Beck by now and finally got a chance to punch him in the face like I've always dreamed.  Could Orson Scott Card have grossly underestimated the influence an anonymous Internet blog might have?

Well anyway, I guess the best answer I can give is just to keep at it.  I'm sure eventually all this blogging should at least get me a major Cabinet position in the end.

Much has been made about the problem of illegal immigration, which I will admit exists and it is a serious one.  However, I don't actually believe that what I conceive of as a "problem" is the same thing the conservative Tea Partiers are looking at.  To them, the problem seems to be that millions of foreigners are sneaking into this country, and now are working at lower wages and thus somehow "taking jobs" from Americans, all while subverting this country's culture by continuing to speak native languages and follow foreign customs.  I, however, look at millions of poor people being forced to sneak into this country (in some cases even crossing deserts) thanks to our cruelly restrictive immigration process.  How exactly is it that we're looking at the same problem?

You know, I don't plan this.  I don't look at the platform of the Tea Party/Republicans* and say "since they're advocating this, I have to oppose it".  I'm not following any party line here.  I'd like to find some things to agree with the Tea Partiers about.  But so much of their political ideas are so despicable that I simply cannot go along with it.  Everything about them seems to boil down to:  "they're not like us, screw them!"  So when it comes to immigration, they're against it.  They don't want foreigners in the country because foreigners aren't like us.  They're the "other", fear them.  Its the same thing with Obama and the ridiculous "Birther" controversy.  Even when you find Obama's birth certificate right here, they continue with this fantasy because if Obama isn't an America that means everything he stands for is immediately null and void.

Here's their plan for the immigration issue:  close the borders, and stop all amnesty, and deport the illegal immigrants - perhaps even deport their children**.  And somehow that will solve everything.  You see, their disgusted by foreign customs, foreign languages, and any sign of allegiance to an immigrants country of birth.  Let's play immigrant right now, you're a Mexican ,the country of origin of the majority of immigrants both legal and illegal and you want to go to Texas to look for work.  Unfortunately, the immigration process to enter the US for an extended period of time is a horribly complicated and backlogged system.  Getting a passport is hard enough, but forget getting a Green Card.  There's a numerical limit that's been imposed for the number of Green Cards given per year for certain things.  Say you're the brother of US citizen and you want to stay here.  The wait for a Green Card application is now ten to eleven years.  Not to mention the fact that work-related Green Cards are not given for unskilled labor, which is exactly what most illegal immigrants come here for - that's the labor with the highest demand.  If you're too poor for a proper education in your home country, too bad.  How is an uneducated person supposed to navigate this hugely complicated and restrictive system?

I'd like to point out that no such Green Card system or really any kind of restrictions existed at all for most of our history.  The Tea Partiers like to point out that their ancestors came to this country legally - which is quite easy when there weren't immigration laws.  There wasn't an immigration law until 1875, before then all you needed to do was get on the boat and you could enter the country.  It was only later that certain restrictions were added that limited immigration from some people:  like those with Typhus, the criminally insane, and later the illiterate.  So if your grandparents came to this country through Ellis Island, yes, they were following the law, but they wasn't really much of a law to break.  There was no need for Green Cards, no quotas, and very little paperwork to file (unless you were Chinese, in which case you were screwed).  There was little illegal immigration because there was no need for it.  Why sneak in through the window if the front door is open?  Restrictive immigration laws are a 20th century invention.  You cannot say that your ancestors are any superior to modern immigrants because they were able to stay within the lenient limits of the law of their time.

Also, the main argument against the act of illegal immigration seems to be a circular one:  the immigrants have broken the law, and so are criminals.  Is the law just?  It doesn't matter, its the law.  I can't possibly believe that any person could be so intellectually complacent as to mindlessly follow the law without a further thought or a hidden agenda.  And it clearly is not the case here.  It seems that the powers calling for further border security and the removal of illegal immigrants do not simply dislike these people for their lawless attitude - its more a general hatred of immigration in general, America's old demon of Nativism.  We've seen it before, we'll probably see it again.  I can't simply accent "its the law, enforce it" as the final word in any situation.  Because the law is amendable:  we don't have a perfect legal code, and our nation is so flawless that every facet of our government should be taken as holy canon.  Opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants is not simply being supportive of US laws, but also being amazingly non-empathetical to the situation for so many

A few of the arguments I've heard against illegal immigrants do not really hold up water either.  1) Immigrants take American* jobs.  If this were the Nineteenth Century, I'd call this sort of talk "hogwash".  Illegal immigrants as a group do not take jobs that we want, their unskilled labor is done in concert with the skilled labor of the US workforce.  However, in our current recession, I'm pretty sure that some serious competition has already begun as workers look to lower and lower jobs out of desperation.  The only worker class that actually competes with illegal immigrants for wages is high school drop-outs.  2) Illegal immigrants do not pay taxes.  Surprisingly this too is untrue.  Most illegal immigrants do indeed pay taxes, and even pay into Social Security when they have no hope of ever gaining a benefit of it.  Very few exploit social services though they do create a notable deficit on government income.  On the other hand, living in the United States means that illegal immigrants have to buy automobiles, food, housing, and everything else needed, which can only boost the economy.  3) National security.  Indeed, some people who come here illegally are criminals, but they make up a tiny percentage of the illegal population.  Most drug dealers have very little interest in staying here, only to exploit the gaps in our border to bring in their illicit product.  Terrorists have indeed used our sluggish Visa programs to stay in this country and plan for attacks, including several of the 9/11 bombers.  But they did not sneak in through the border.  Building the Great Wall of the Southwest isn't going to stop them.

The real solution to this problem is not to seal the boarders, though increased security would greatly benefit this country against smuggling.  We can't seal up the nation until we solve our worker problem:  there is a great demand for great labor, and people around the world are willing to come here to perform those tasks, be it through a legal method or by running across a desert.  If we're going to secure the boarders, first we need to accept the fact that millions of illegals are here in this country and are going to stay.  And next we need to find a legal process in which we can properly integrate them into this society.  The United States supposedly is a nation that allows all in that want to come here:

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" - The New Colossus****

If that isn't the promise of America that we believe in with pride, I have no idea what is.

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* There is absolutely no different I can ascertain between either the Tea Party movement or the base of the Republican Party.  If the Tea Partiers were to become a true political party (the Tea Party Party), the Republican Party would be completely devoid of real electoral strength.  So steadily the GOP becomes more and more radical, and moderates in the party are forced to flee if they want to truly represent their constituency - or keep their votes if you prefer the more cynical perspective.

** Deporting the children born in this country of illegal immigrants would reverse 150 years of naturalization policy in this country and would be incredibly unconstitutional.  The Fourteenths Amendment clearly states that anybody born in this country is automatically a citizen (unless they're the children of foreign diplomats).  This would require a whole new Amendment to the Constitution.  I'm particularly disgusted by such plans, as they seem to violate the egalitarian promise of the United States.  "It doesn't matter who your parents are, as long as you're born here you're one of us."  Who cannot help but love the fairness of that idea?

*** Considering that the people who typically immigrate to this country already live in America, i.e. the entire Western Hemisphere, this term is highly confusing and not very useful when describing immigration, yet the more ignorant posters still use it, as if America exists only within the confines of the United States.  Unfortunately "United Stateser" doesn't sound very good, so the only demonym for people from the US is "American", which combined with our country's general egotism means that we often forget that other countries exist (for example I assume that my audience is entirely United Statesers, but I know for a fact that it isn't) or in this case actually count.

**** The Statue of Liberty was originally made as a symbol of solidarity between the republican nations of the United States and France, but Emma Lazarus's poem kinda ruined that.  Now she's become the "Mother of Exiles", welcoming millions into this land.  I'm sure the Goddess of Liberty can handle symbolizing more than one thing.  It might all be symbolism and even at times in our history hypocrisy, but I believe there's a truth to this promise that can be believed in, and defended.