In April, 2009, there was a tragedy involving two teenagers in Huntsville, AL, killed by a drunk driver. It turns out that the driver was being chased by a policeman, refused to stop, ran a red light and killed two kids at an intersection. In a day or so, we found out that the driver was an illegal alien and had had several run-ins with the law, but was still driving. Instead of concentrating on the tragedy of drunk driving and issues with law enforcement, a few turned their anger and venom against illegal immigrants in general. The anger now is about why we are not working to restrict illegal immigration and why we are not doing anything about the illegals that are already in this country.
I was listening to the tirade against illegals on a local radio station. I had just finished reading Jason L Riley's excellent book titled "Let them In" (he is talking about letting illegals and other immigrants in). Riley points out that statistically illegal aliens are LESS LIKELY to commit crimes, use LESS public resources, PAY more into the system than they take out, work at jobs that no one seems to want and in general contribute to our economic growth enormously. Yet, myths about what the illegals do and what it costs our system persist. Often the rage against illegals turns to rage against ALL immigrants and there are groups that are working to restrict even LEGAL immigration. Most people will try hard to say that they are against ILlegal immigration and not LEGAL immigration - yet, when pressed will not hesitate to say that we must do something about those immigrants taking jobs away from natives - never mind what immigrants bring to the US. I am an immigrant - Did I take a job away from a native? I am sure some think so - no matter what I have done or will do - or how I may have contributed to this economy - or how what I do, the skills I brought to this country are shared by very few here and elsewhere in the world. Yet, myths about immigration persist, must to my disappointment.
I am an immigrant. I made a CHOICE to adopt this country as mine. I like my choice.
The reason we have "illegal" immigration has to do with many factors - one being the low number of legal options. Our companies, industries cannot survive without illegals. Forgetting for the economic mess we are in now, look at California - Has the illegal problem caused them economic hardship? Not from what I have seen - their unemployment remained low for along time, their
economy GREW like the rest - their problem is crazy taxation policies.
I have much that to align myself with "Conservatives" - but my hero is Reagan - who talked about freedom and our heritage as an open nation. Riley does a great job of reminding us of what Reagan stood for - and yes, Reagan actually signed into law "amnesty".
The Republican party will NEVER again be a majority UNLESS they stop their madness against immigration in general and often xenophobic outbursts.
We, the US of A, remain what I believe to be the truly last, great free society where we enjoy unprecedented freedoms, in our personal and public lives. Yes, there are other democracies and republics and yes there is rule of law in many places, but none like the US of A. This is, I believe, in part because of our willingness to accept a few/many that will choose to disobey our laws since we know that we cannot catch and prosecute everyone that breaks every law. The view of a few is that we can do more to catch illegals entering the country and prosecute more of those that we can catch. Perhaps. But, what is their threshold? When will they be happy? I think most agree that it will be
impossible to stop everyone from coming. My point is that a substantial ratcheting up of law enforcement that is specific to illegal immigration will cause untold, collateral damage with minimal improvement to life in general - Yes, I am sure a few will feel better that "We are atleast doing something". The collateral damage I am talking about will be the rounding up of legal immigrants due to error in our record keeping system and the fear it will engender in ALL of us - who knows, perhaps a society that will require ALL of us to carry
"PAPERS" that can be checked randomly by authorities to make sure we are legal. Yes, it is a stretch - but I imagine it will happen EVEN if everything the natives want is implemented by Congress. If a WALL is built and yet people keep coming, I can imagine people screaming for something else.
If employers cannot be stopped, people will scream for more enforcement and more and more. It will never end.
Jason Riley said it best. The simple fact is that the illegals have contributed enormously to this economy by taking jobs that no one else wants - and creates new jobs through their contributions to society in many ways. Till recently, our unemployment rate hovered in the low 5's - EVEN with those 12 million illegals. They are not all sitting home, watching TV and cashing welfare checks -
THAT is done by an entirely different segment of our population that is destined to grow larger in the coming years.
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