Posted on 04/30/2010 8:56:10 PM PDT by Kaslin
The Congress of the United States -- an institution that spent a chunk of the past year cajoling passage of the most contentious legislation devised in decades -- may not have the "appetite" to take on another "controversial issue," namely immigration reform, this year, according to President Barack Obama. Bummer.
But is immigration, in the broadest sense of the idea, really a contentious matter?
Health care reform, cap and trade -- at the heart of these questions resides an irreconcilable conflict of philosophy, be it economic doctrine or the proper role of government, and as we learned, no amount of negotiation will bridge these ideological splits.
Very few Americans, on the other hand, are inherently opposed to immigration. For the most part, the controversy we face isn't about immigration at all. It's about the systematic failure of federal government to enforce the law or offer rational policy. There's a difference.
Gallup polls (and others) taken over the past decade find that about 60 percent of Americans, when asked whether immigration is generally a good thing or a bad thing for the country, believe it to be a positive. Yet when Gallup recently polled Americans about the new Arizona law that cracks down on illegal immigrants, of the three-quarters of voters who had heard about the then-pending legislation, 51 percent said they favor it, while only 39 percent said they oppose it.
Americans value immigration. They recoil from lawlessness. And frustration over the impotent border enforcement has manifested itself in a flailing overreach. Arizona's law isn't a referendum on Latinos or even immigration itself. It's an unambiguous rebuke of Washington.
There are, on one noisy periphery, those who yell "Nazi" or "racist" at any sign of enforcement. In truth, many of these folks don't believe any person can be here illegally; to them, the very existence of a border is xenophobic and an affront to human rights.
That's not to say there aren't those on the other fringe -- regularly lumping themselves in with mainstream opposition to illegal behavior -- who disapprove of any immigration on principle. They agonize over the Third World infiltrators. They are often economic protectionists and occasionally militant environmentalists who view any growth or prosperity as a death sentence for Mother Earth.
But if you, like me, believe it's possible to advocate for a broad-minded immigration policy -- one that creates more expansive guest-worker programs, offers amnesty (though not citizenship) to some immigrants already here and enforces border control -- this administration is not making it easy on you, either.
The uplifting tale of the hard-boiled immigrant, dipping his or her sweaty hands into the well of the American dream, is one thing. Today we find ourselves in an unsustainable and rapidly growing welfare state. Can we afford to allow millions more to partake?
When Nobel Prize-winning libertarian economist Milton Friedman was asked about unlimited immigration in 1999, he stated that "it is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. And you cannot have both."
Dependency programs incentivize not only those who want to work but also those who don't want to work. That's why we need to allow a generous number of immigrants and visitors to take a shot at the American dream and become part of our economy. I'd just like them to do it on their own and check in first.
Perhaps I'm experiencing an abnormal spasm of quixotic delirium, but I can't imagine that most Americans would find a policy that offers both true security and robust immigration very controversial.
Yep, and we got #2.
Eliminate ALL income taxes(and Capital Gains taxes) and businesses and jobs will come here faster than illegal aliens can take them.. many will be left over FOR US>..
The White Elephant is that for nearly 45 years, the white European is put at the bottom of the immigration list.
The advent of the Hart-Cellar act was the start of the trip down the toilet. Prior to that time, the immigrants were tightly controlled. We accepted only the best. That was the reason we held immigrants in high regard. Hart-Cellar opened the door to the dregs and chain migration of families. The quality control went down the crapper. We need to return to the old policy.
But that’s an ambiguous fluff statement. His real position is stated above:
“...expansive guest-worker programs, offers amnesty (though not citizenship) to some immigrants already here...”
Completely unacceptable “plantation” mentality. The only immigration I want is for people who have gone through the entire process — criminal background check, health check, $50,000 employer sponsorship bond and guaranteed employment waiting for them. I have no interest in a revolving door for second-class persons employed as “guest workers” and I want every single person who is here illegally to self-deport. If they have to be deported by law enforcement they should be ineligible to ever apply to come back. They have a known criminal background, after all, including fraud and tax evasion.
This guy is an idiot. He lacks even basic knowledge about our immigration policies and laws.
Immigration isn’t the problem; illegal immigration is the problem.
The Puerto Rico vote and the Arizona law have immigration in the news again, just in time for the Dems to revive the impression of Republicans as evil white men who don't want none of them 'non-white' folk around.
In the static they can create, all the details and facts will be lost. Listen to the conversations of random people in your community over the following months, and you will hear the most bizarre theories and storylines emerging. That's because we so prize uninformed interpretations that aren't based on "history" and "law" but on revisionist history and "real people".
The mantra is "Everyone has the right to their opinion" (though they really only have the right to their informed opinion), and you can't tell someone that their information is wrong--who are YOU to tell ME I haven't got the facts???
In the rise of Olbermania, getting one's news from Comedy Central and Leno, and the touchy-feeliness of Oprah having invaded the political system, we are at the mercy of an emotion-based media that talks endlessly about "the impression of racism in the Tea Party movement" and such.
Things could go well for us in November, but the FEEEEELINGS that got Obama into power haven't just gone away. They've cooled a little, and are waiting for an issue like this one to be re-ignited.
Yes, when the source countries are a monoculture, and when the immigrants are slow to learn English and quick to learn political slogans cobbled up by MALDEF and La Raza and the MeChistas, people who want either to run the whole United States as part of a minoritarian occupation regime, or a part of it after partition with foreign help.
Suggestion to writer: Quit thinking about busting wage costs and think about your country once in a while.
Mexico’s in the midst of a civil war...drug cartels and widespread corruption, 25,000 Mexicans dead. It’s estimated that 25% of Mexico’s population is already here, illegally. How long before the rest flood over the border to escape the violence. Waves of people, like Niagara Falls. And what will the media’s answer be? ‘Oh the humanity. We must house and feed the masses. Where are those Katrina FEMA trailers? It’s Bush’s fault.’
Is your skin crawling? Zero and pals foul everything they touch. One disaster after another, and the press drools and blames Sarah Palin or the Tea Party. Well, the youknowwhat is hitting the fan and Americans know who’s to blame. They’re scared to death of what’s going on and absolutely furious.
I think most immigration for the last 20 years has been negative for the citizens. Bloombergs comments about the USA nneding to import more doctors says it perfectly. In a nation of 300 million, which virtually invented modern medicine we are now creating a system where we can’t eduate our own doctors.
As a long time employee in the high tech industry the infiltration of H1-B Visa holders has been devistating. Just as American manufacturers can’t compete with people in countries that have no safety laws, environmental laws, affirmative action laws, government retirement funds, government mandated insurance funds, government mandated disability funds, OSHA regulations, and all the rest, so too is is difficult to compete with people who are coming over just to work on a three year contract, living six to a house, and being paid a lump sum upon return to India, thus avoiding (”contractor”) many of the costs listed above.
We can’t train enough engineers, according to Hewlett-Packard, Sun Mirosystems, Oracle and their ilk, to staff our own high-tech. Despite the fact that Americans invented nearly all the technology in the industry, and managed to be 99% of the engineering staff at these companies until the early 1990s, today a trip to the labs at any of them will find a majority of non-native employees.
It does become a vicious cycle. Would you advise your child to be software developer and face a lifetime of outsourcing, right-sizing, off-shoring and contractor competitors? I think not.
To me it is just another scam by short sighted executives to patch up the bottom line. HP’s conversion to foreign contractors was simultaneous with its decline from a manufacturer of bullet-proof and unique products to just another company doing big acquisitions and pumping out mediocre products.
Still the leader responsible made a small fortune, put herself on television and is now running for Gov. of California? What is her plan for the state, I wonder? Outsource the citizens?
I do not favor citizen replacement. I don’t favor endless diversity. One of our strengths until recently was some degree of homogenity. We had melted, and everywhere you went people spoke English, followed baseball and believed in core American values.
When did we vote to replace ourselves? When did we vote to turn our country over to the whole wide world? When did we decide to be serfs instead of citizens? I don’t remember voting for any of it. I don’t remember any candidate promoting these policies, this deluge of humanity.
“Under my exciting new program the population of the USA will be drastically increased with people from all over the world. You will soon be surrounded by people who don’t speak our language, don’t particularly like our culture and in many cases think Whites are either evil or stupid. This is a great opportunity for you! It will however require you to tolerate real estate prices growing twice as fast as inflation, wide spread urban sprawl, yeilding political power to leftist groups who the new citizens are more comfortable with, and seeing your symbols, heros and monuments coverted to honor new histories and gods.”
“Vote for me!”.
Any wonder that a lot of people are pissed?
You got that right. I talk to many folks in the “mushy middle” and it is astounding to hear such uninformed childish opinions/feelings.
Watch for the relentless sob stories about the “immigrant” (undocumented)valedictorian (with citizen-anchor siblings) whose parents work four jobs while fighting terminal diseases and no access to health care.
The media will spin this faster than a pulsar until any thinking person's head will explode.
Every sane country in the world, including those with lots of open space like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, stresses quality as the main condition for an immigrant visa.
While quality has absolutely nothing to do with race, quality immigrants tend to come from places where qualities like education and self-sufficiency are part of the culture. Most of those places tend to be where there are a large number of Asians and white people (whatever that means).
In some cases they were already here. In others, they had to pass the equivalent test of the time.
Before Castle Garden (the predecessor of Ellis Island) was opened, that test consisted of no welfare, no government help, learn the language and culture of your adopted host country before trying to reshape it to your own liking.
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