Saturday, April 01, 2006
Immigration
Recently the Washington political machine has decided to push immigration reform as action point for national security and homeland defense. Yet again, the politicians have missed the mark when guaging the will of the public and their actions reek of elitist philosophy and racism.
The United States is a nation of immigrants, whether they be european, african, middle eastern or latino, the US is what it is because people have wanted to come here to find a better life and have worked hard to achieve that goal. It's part of the melting pot of american society and what has made this nation the dominant world economic, technoligical, philosophical and scientific entity in the world. The US owes great debts to immigrants whether they be the irish housekeepers and laborers of the 1900s, the german scientists of WW2 or the latino day laborers of today. Without them the US could not be what it is and our national quality of living would be much lower than it is.
The unfortunate reality is that those who depend most on immigrant labor to provide affordable daycare, custodial services, or manual labor are not the people who want immigration reform, the men driving this debate are those most removed from the economic reality of the average citizen. This disconnect between the voting public and the elected officials is a glaring problem with the industrialization of government service. Instead of doing the will of their constituants, "public servants" are instead using their position of power to oppress those without a voice. Just like the irish and the chinesse before them, latino immigrants are being exploited by the overwhelming weathy populace of the US; however to maintain our status in the world the US depends on the labor of these immigrants. To criminalize their presence could result in not only an increased incarceration rate of immigrants which would add to our already taxed prison system and heavy tax burden, but also damage our economy by increasing the costs associated with everyday goods and services, thus straining the already tight budgets of the average american.
What we need is not criminization of illegal status, nor do we need to declare an amnesty for all immigrants currently in the US but we need a system by which immigrants can be registered and allowed to stay in the US as long as they maintain a job and add to our economy. I suppose this falls into the Guest Worker Program the president is pushing ( I really don't believe that I wrote that) but we really need to look hard at how this will be implemented and the economic impact that this is going to have on the average american and not the bearucrats in DC.
Recently the Washington political machine has decided to push immigration reform as action point for national security and homeland defense. Yet again, the politicians have missed the mark when guaging the will of the public and their actions reek of elitist philosophy and racism.
The United States is a nation of immigrants, whether they be european, african, middle eastern or latino, the US is what it is because people have wanted to come here to find a better life and have worked hard to achieve that goal. It's part of the melting pot of american society and what has made this nation the dominant world economic, technoligical, philosophical and scientific entity in the world. The US owes great debts to immigrants whether they be the irish housekeepers and laborers of the 1900s, the german scientists of WW2 or the latino day laborers of today. Without them the US could not be what it is and our national quality of living would be much lower than it is.
The unfortunate reality is that those who depend most on immigrant labor to provide affordable daycare, custodial services, or manual labor are not the people who want immigration reform, the men driving this debate are those most removed from the economic reality of the average citizen. This disconnect between the voting public and the elected officials is a glaring problem with the industrialization of government service. Instead of doing the will of their constituants, "public servants" are instead using their position of power to oppress those without a voice. Just like the irish and the chinesse before them, latino immigrants are being exploited by the overwhelming weathy populace of the US; however to maintain our status in the world the US depends on the labor of these immigrants. To criminalize their presence could result in not only an increased incarceration rate of immigrants which would add to our already taxed prison system and heavy tax burden, but also damage our economy by increasing the costs associated with everyday goods and services, thus straining the already tight budgets of the average american.
What we need is not criminization of illegal status, nor do we need to declare an amnesty for all immigrants currently in the US but we need a system by which immigrants can be registered and allowed to stay in the US as long as they maintain a job and add to our economy. I suppose this falls into the Guest Worker Program the president is pushing ( I really don't believe that I wrote that) but we really need to look hard at how this will be implemented and the economic impact that this is going to have on the average american and not the bearucrats in DC.
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