Lost in the shuffle of all of the political news of the past weeks has been the immigration debate. I assume the immigration debate will disappear every election year. The issue is that we as Americans have been systematically programmed to believe that all immigration issues involve those persons of Hispanic or Latino decent. The Hispanic/Latino vote was the deciding factor in the most recent elections. Now that the Hispanic or Latino population has been declared one voice regardless of their geographic origin (which is ignorant I must add), a political issue for both Democrats and Republicans going forward will be how to court their vote.
Interestingly enough Latinos, specifically Mexicans have gained a great deal of economic clout in recent years. 20 years ago there were no Mexicans in the list of the 100 richest people in the world. Now there are many very wealthy Mexicans. The bottom line is Hispanics or Latinos have become the scapegoats for immigration reform, rather than the powers that be dealing with the flaws in the immigration system which effect people of all nationalities. The immigration system is inefficient, complicated, and expensive. We are falling away from the organized and cogent regulation in which our country was founded upon.
However, Mexico is marketed by both extremes as a country that can’t wait to cross the border to the “City on the Hill”. We Americans should not be so egotistical. America should focus its energies in helping Mexico become economically stronger. This does not involve sending American jobs to Mexico or opening up the borders it involves us Americans swallowing our pride and creating other cities on other hills. Hispanics and Latinos are not the only people in this country who at times may be here illegally. Mexicans are not the problem they just have the ability to walk over the border. How many issue do we report of Canadians running over the border. None. After all aren’t we a country of immigrants (See the Mayflower)?
Questions
1. Which immigration reforms do you feel the Obama administration should make?
2. Should America first rebuilt its own infrastructure then turn these skills into our main industry and service offering to the world (i.e. disaster recovery).
3. What role do you think Latinos or Hispanics will hold in the future of American politics?
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4 comments:
Immigration is not the issue, it is ILLEGAL immigration that is at the core of this debate. It does not matter if the individual is from Dubai, or Kenya, or Canada, or Norway, or Mexico. It also does not matter if they are coming here and washing cars or performing brain surgery, they have committed an illegal act and therefore are subject to censure. Think about this; if all of a sudden the United States started to receive thousands of immigrants from Japan and they were arriving illegally, wouldn't the government start to set up systems to counter act that wave of illegal behavior? I do not know what those counter measures would be but they would most likely take the form of everything from physical to economic boundaries. It just so happens that Mexico is in close PHYSICAL approximation to our country and the tactics that have been adopted have been customized to the specific nature of the ongoing infraction. I don't like the idea of building an actual wall between two countries (anyone remember Berlin?)as it does not foster good relations, but walls do make good neighbors, and if someone kept walking across your lawn despite instruction not too, what would you do to curtail the infraction without seeming to be combative?
Why are the people LEAVING their own country for this one? What is so bad about their native lands economics or politics or infrastructure that it would cause a man or woman to leave a family and support system and make an often times fatal journey thousands of miles to another country? If I were president of Mexico (and I am not singling out Mexico by any means) and my country men were leaving my country for another, I would consider that a national crisis. I would consider it situation unacceptable for continued survival. The draining of young people, resources, and labor would be a handicap for the growth and sustainability of my commonwealth. I would examine every reason as to why my fellow Mexicans are leaving, and then start to make home a better place to live. Think about it; if young Americans were leaving their homes for foreign lands in droves, and illegally showing up on other countries door steps what type of response would that illicit from the American and foreign governments?
Indeed, illegal immigration is the problem. Often times when this subject is touched it is always referred as "immigration" not "illegal immigration." Illegal immigration will never end, it happens all over the world. A close yet perfect example is Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the question as it was stated before is... what is causing someone to leave their home country, family, friends, for another foreign country? where you will have to start your life all over again, learn a new language and culture. As an immigrant coming from Cuba I can tell you that my parents made that decision not for themselves but for me and my sister. I do not know what life would be in Cuba, but I know that if we would have not left Cuba I would probably not be alive to be able to blog on this subject. Some people leave their countries for political reasons (like my parents) in countries where you are not "politically oppressed" people leave for a "better life" which is not always the case. The fact of the matter is that in the United States of America illegal immigration will never end, it does not matter where you are coming from. If a wall is put up, they're just going to jump over it or dig a tunnel under it, they are still going to come. Our government should consider working with the other governments to create programs that would discourage illegal immigration... ie: Bracero program. After all most of the illegal immigrants that come to this country take care of out lawns, pick the strawberies we eat, clean our public restrooms etc. these are jobs that you would not catch an educated man/women with a college degree and/or graduate degree doing. By no means am I justifying illegal immigration but I am saying that by creating programs that will discourage the person that is contemplating coming into this country illegally, will help alleviate the "pain" of illegal immigration.
My point is not that we should open the borders up and people should come from any and everywhere. For example, why don't people go to Germany to become citizens. The reason is that they can't. The U.S. is a country which was built on immigration but at what point do we say enough. Well, I think we should always be the country of hope and that requires us to be a place where people come to find such hope. My issue with immigration is the red tape and the inefficient process. We need comprehensive reform to the immigration issue. We need solutions and not band-aids.
I don't believe that we should open the borders up and just let anyone in either. I think that the first thing that should be addressed is the issue of the families who's parents are illegal but kids are U.S. Citizens... and some of these kids are fighting in Iraq right now. Unfortunately John McCain put it best... he said, "I would not want to be the person who has to go to those parents and tell them they have to leave this country when their kids are fighting in Iraq." Most of these families are hard working families that are willing to do "almost" anything to survive in this country and provide a "better life" for their kids. By starting with finding a "comprehensive" solution to this now internal problem that we are faced with, would be a good step to immigration reform. Our country prides itself on families being the core in our society but yet we are contradicting ourselves by making these families split up leaving the kids here to fend for themselves... (some of these kids are minors 18 years and under) If we start with a "comprehensive solution" to this issue would be a good way of heading towards the pathway of "comprehensive immigration reform." Statics show that by 2020 the Latino population in the U.S. will be the majority. So yes immigration is a HUGE issue that needs to be addressed I would say up there with the economy... Latinos have been compared to the Chinese in the sense that the Chinese are the sleeping dragon and Latinos are the sleeping giant and both are starting to wake up. Therefore "comprehensive immigration reform" needs to come quick. What are those solutions? I don't know... but maybe we can look at some of the ideas/plans that have been implemented that have somewhat worked and maybe work on improving those and by doing this maybe new ideas will come about...
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