Hello All Politically Concerned People,
I have just read the new Arizona immigration law and YEA! A State that is finally acting in the best interest of citizens and legal residents. The law supports the federal immigration law, creates penalties for U.S. employers who break the law, and actively addresses the consequences created by the Federal government failure to enforce our current immigration law. The law should be in place in every state.
The illegal immigration problem in the U.S. has created a variety of negative consequences for many Americans. First, it has stressed hospitals all over the country to the point of closure. Thus, taking away necessary and needed health care providers in particularly lower income areas. Nurses, doctors, and hospitals do not work/run for free even if people wish them to. By reducing or eliminating the illegal alien problem the amount of uninsured people drop significantly, thereby, reducing the cost of health care for those of us who are paying for it. Second, it has stressed school districts across the country. Additional buildings, ESL programs, free lunches, larger class sizes, elimination of art and music programs, are only a few of the costs incurred by school districts because of the illegal immigration problem. Third, there is a direct correlation between the flow of illegal drugs, the flow of illegal immigrants, and an increase of crime; not limited to murder, rape, racketeering, robbery, breaking and entering, assault, and money laundering just to name a few. These are only a handful of the problems created due to this illegal immigration problem.
The current U.S. national debt is about $14 trillion dollars and the U.S. taxpayer is responsible for paying that debt. Illegal workers and the U.S. employers who employ them do not pay their expected tax debt and that problem is further compounded by the significant use of social services to the combined tune of about a third of a trillion dollars per year with projections that increase that amount to a half trillion dollars within the next five years.
With the economy in the precarious position it is currently located, the double digit unemployment rates, global economic instability, global terrorism, and the current government attack on capitalism in favor of socialism; The U.S. can hardly afford the cost of itself, let alone the cost of millions of illegals. In light of these facts this Arizona law is the most reasonable law I have read in quite awhile.
For those naysayers who claim it will be about racial profiling, give me a break! Just because the majority of illegal immigrants in the U.S. are from Central and South America does not mean this law is racial profiling. It would be the same as saying our federal immigration law is racial profiling as well, or any law that someone disagrees with discriminates against them. The laws of this country exist to protect our citizens and those we allow to legally reside or visit here. We, as a country, do not owe illegals anything but we do have a responsibility to the American people to send illegals and their associated problems back to where they they come from.
All I can add is; It is about time! Let's bring this Arizona law to every state!
Thank you for listening.
Corrine Loyola
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I have not read the Arizona immigration law, so I can speak only to the sentiment I've heard expressed from both sides. I have been through the immigration process and have seen firsthand both the potestas and the generosity of immigration officials. I have also seen the cost of entry and suddenly the inscription on the Statue of Liberty,
ReplyDelete"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!"
no longer rings true. Our nation is, and always has been, a nation of immigrants. Many came when no options remained for them in the their homeland. Destitute but determined, poor but proud, they came to America to start anew. They came to America to become Americans, but not at the cost of their heritage. The Germans, the Poles, the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the lot brought their culture along with their clothing.
And we are better for it.
I don't think the Arizona law will serve to reduce crime, limit the drug trade, or dissuade people from entering the United States illegally. I believe this law will shift immigration to other states with less stringent enforcement, but once all states adopt similar policies, then nothing will have changed. All the time, cost, and effort to return to where we began. The drug traffickers don't care--they were just passing through anyway. Illegal immigrants will become more clever at hiding their illegal status because the police officer charged with stopping them will have time to perform either a few in-depth checks or many cursory checks per day. As an immigrant, why go through all this? Because harassment by law enforment in Arizona is still better than death at the hands of gangs in Juarez.
Although I don't foresee the Arizona law itself having a significant impact, I do hope its passage has a knock-on effect. I hope that it will lead to legislation that streamlines a migrant workforce. I hope that it will promote a sociopolitical environment that is welcoming to immigrants that have hidden in the shadows for more than 30 years, and as a result, formed a separate subculture that contravenes the goal of "e pluribus unum." I hope that, because of our collective response to this law, Lady Liberty's silent lips once more ring true and more people come to America to become Americans.
Branden,
ReplyDeleteYou are right that in the past immigrants came to America to be Americans but I don't believe that is the case anymore. The answer to the crime in Mexico is not leaving for America but fixing their own Mexico; and not expecting Americans to pick up the tab. If jail time, fines, the inability to support their family here, is not a deterrent to breaking the law; then the rule of law, that this country relies on, is not important to them either. The rule of law is one of the most fundamental principles on which our country was built, one that should never be changed.
I too have been directly involved in the immigration process, from a place none too different from Juarez, and if we can do it legally, others can too. I think that immigration is good, as long as it is legal. You may have a point that it may or may not reduce the drug trade, for this law will not reduce the American appetite for illegal drugs, but we have the responsibility to close this avenue of traffic because we know it is there.
The days of Ellis Island are long over and in their place are terrorists and other threats to America that cannot be overlooked. People from all over the world come to America and are still accepted as political refugees and workers. Why should anyone flout U.S. federal law and be handed a free pass? At what cost to actual citizens and legal residents of this great nation? -Thanks, Corrine