Immigration rules should provide equal opportunity
Luck is the initial determining factor for whether an individual will be allowed to reside and work in America
http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/28607
Derrick Skaug
The Daily Evergreen
Published: 04/22/2009
The Statue of Liberty’s words have been forgotten. The lessons of the Berlin Wall lost in the pages of history. The rise of the razor fences has begun. This nation created by immigrants for immigrants has turned its back on its founding principles. The injustice facing undocumented immigrants is a wrong that must be made right.
The power of an imaginary line drawn on a piece of paper by men hundreds of years ago is unjust. Being born on one side of the line offers a life of privilege and opportunity, on the other side, a life of poverty. Our border has become a line that separates the poor from the rich, the haves from the have-nots, the broken from hope.
There are those who would argue that we need to look out for our own citizens before we worry about others. All people are created equal and immigrants – even illegal ones – are people. The only difference between illegal immigrants and Americans is luck. Americans often get stuck in their identities and forget that by simple chance, they could have been born into a different family in a different country.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 22 million illegal immigrants, yet the deportations are few and far apart. It should be clear the status quo is what those in power prefer. The privileged patriotic patriarchs put politics and power ahead of historic promises when it serves their own needs.
Right now, there is a set limit to how many Mexicans can immigrate to America. The denied can immigrate anyway, illegally. The quotas must be repealed and a path to citizenship should be provided for them. This will not be easy or popular. There is a sizable group of Americans who support a isolationist xenophobic immigration policy. In fact, the Pew Research Center reports, only 17 percent of Americans favor increasing legal immigration. But we must remember that a sizable majority of Americans also opposed desegregating schools and interracial marriages.
Quotas are useless tools of prejudice. The quotas are never used to keep out Western European immigrants who fit into the mold created long ago. They are used to keep out those of different races and religions who challenge the status quo.
These quotas do not protect our economy. Sebastian Mallaby, director of the Mauirce R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, wrote in a column, “Economists have patiently explained for years that there is no finite ‘lump of labor’ in an economy. The presence of migrants causes new jobs to be created.” Aside from physical spacial limits, there is no economic limit to how many people can exist in a marketplace. If there are 300 million people in a country you might need 3,000 factories, if there are 500 million people in a country you might need 5,000 factories.
Who now remembers the promise written on the Statue of Liberty? “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.” It’s time we live up to that promise.
They should indeed, even upon this platform, please take your time to read about them in regard to posting blogs….
Welcome, ;-)
This nation created by immigrants for immigrants has turned its back on its founding principles.
Read your history. Most of the revolutionaries and founding fathers were native born Americans. They were not immigrants. They created America to secure freedom for themselves. And mass immigration was hardly one of our founding principles. It is barely mentioned in our Constitution and if you read the writings of our Founding Fathers most of them were not overly enthusiastic about it.
The Statue of Liberty’s words have been forgotten.
The Statue of Liberty originally had nothing to do with immigration. The poem was added decades after France gave her to America. And a poem is NOT an immigration policy. There are NO equivalent words in any of our founding documents.
Despite that, we have the most generous LEGAL immigration policy in the world and we accept more LEGAL immigrants than ALL of the other countries in the world combined. And immigration for the past couple of decades has been greatly in EXCESS of historical norms and has made the previous great waves of immigration look trivial. Your assertion rings hollow.
Our border has become a line that separates the poor from the rich, the haves from the have-nots, the broken from hope.
That may be true. But why is it true and why is it our problem? Mexico is a richly endowed country with vast natural resources and thousands of miles of beautiful coast line. All they need to do to set off a building boom that would provide millions of great jobs for their people is reform their property ownership laws along their coastlines and get rid of their corruption. Mexico should help itself.
There are those who would argue that we need to look out for our own citizens before we worry about others.
That would be the vast majority of the American people. We are Democracy and we are supposed to have government "for the people by the people". If the people in our Democratic country want less immigration or certain types of immigration that is what they should get.
All people are created equal and immigrants – even illegal ones – are people.
True enough. And they will still be people if they remain in the country where they were born.
There are almost 7 billion people on Earth and about 5 billion of those people are poorer than the average Mexican. A very large number of them would like to come to America. Why should Mexicans be given priority over these people who have even greater needs? And obviously America can only absorb a tiny fraction of these miserable poor people or we destroy everything good about our country. The only place most of these people can possibly be helped is in the country where they were born. That includes Mexicans too.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 22 million illegal immigrants, yet the deportations are few and far apart.
Please post a link. I follow this issue very closely and the commonly accepted number from the government, PEW and others is 12 million. It declined last year for the first time in a long time largely due to enforcement.
Right now, there is a set limit to how many Mexicans can immigrate to America.
True enough. Mexico is the single largest source country for legal immigrants. The quota for Mexicans is extremely generous. China has at least 13 times as many people as Mexico yet we allow far less
Chinese to come.
The denied can immigrate anyway, illegally.
True enough. A study came out a couple of days ago which said 11% of the entire Mexican population born in Mexico is now living in the United States. And Mexico is still having babies at an unsustainable rate substantially above replacement level or their ability to create jobs for their people. I think that is disgustingly irresponsible and ignorant.
The quotas must be repealed and a path to citizenship should be provided for them. This will not be easy or popular.
WHY must we do these things? America is a Democracy. Our government should be guided by the will of the people and the people don't want amnesty and do want our borders secured and our immigration laws enforced.
But we must remember that a sizable majority of Americans also opposed desegregating schools and interracial marriages.
But these were civil rights issues where CITIZENS were being denied equal treatment under the law. ILLEGAL ALIENS are NOT citizens and they are not being denied their civil rights. What they deserve is justice and that would be the punishment that comes with the various crimes they have committed in America including crossing our borders illegally, identify theft, tax evasion, violations of our employment laws, etc, etc, etc. In most cases justice is served by deportation but in some cases prison and then deportation is appropriate.
Quotas are useless tools of prejudice.
I agree. The Mexican quota should be reduced so that we can free up spots for people from even poorer countries who are being displaced by our slanted quota system that favors Mexico.
“Economists have patiently explained for years that there is no finite ‘lump of labor’ in an economy.
If the presence of millions of uneducated people from countries like Mexico is such a blessing then I suppose the Mexican economy is booming?
After every major immigration raid in recent years Americans have been lining up in droves to fill the newly vacated jobs. The economists are full of crap.
Currently, our economy is shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs per month. And our stupid government is bringing in about a million legal immigrants per year to compete with unemployed Americans. Where is the sense in that? Women, minorities and the poor are hardest hit.
“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.” It’s time we live up to that promise.
I never made that promise and I never voted for anybody who did. That is a poem and there are no similar words to be found in our Constitution. A poem is not an immigration policy. I have voted for years for politicians who have made immigration laws. I don't agree with all of those laws but until they are changed or repealed I expect them to be followed and vigorously enforced.