They are coming over the border!
They are coming over the border!
I live 60 miles from the United States border with Mexico. When I drive in the southern deserts, the litter I see on the road annoys me. Much of this is from illegal immigrants hiking through the desert.
I am not anti-immigration. I would not BE here were it not for immigration. Many distant relatives stayed in Europe and paid the ultimate price in the Holocaust. Therefore, I am grateful to this country and will stand up for it.
I'm not angry with the poverty stricken (mostly Mexican) immigrant coming here for a better life. Many of our ancestors did that, however most did it LEGALLY!
These folks are also being taken advantage of by Coyotes who say it is 20 miles to safety when it is 60 and they die in the desert.
Post 9/11, it is imperative, our borders are controlled. The United States is built on immigrants, however they need to come here LEGALLY. What if a terrorist does slip through?
This being said, we had the Minutemen patrolling the border. If I thought they were better regulated, I would see them as an example of citizen participation. I suspect though, there are many in the group who want to just flaunt racist tendancies. Since the United States is built on immigrants, Anti-immigrant bigotry is unacceptable. I have a friend at work who is of Mexican descent and conservative as all get out. In her Texas twang she cries, "build a wall, close them borders, keep 'em out! I'm super left wing next to her. Many of us get in and want to shut the door. This goes back to the the Know Nothing Party in the 1840's wanting to keep the Irish out of Boston and New York. (I'm married to someone of Boston Irish descent, so I've heard the whole messy story). I have an example of this from my Toastmasters club. One member wanted to limit our membership. I asked him, "who among us would you deny membership to? What if we kept YOU out?"
Still we need to know who is here and folks need to come legally. The Sunday July 17th Op Ed Section of the Arizona Star had a piece about Margo Cowan who is part of the groups helping illegals in the desert. There is nothing wrong with humanitarian aid. Charity toward ones fellow man is a good thing. Having saved them, you need to turn these folks into immigration. To not sound Anti-Moslem, what if the person who is crossing is not Miguel the poor Campesino looking for work but Mohammed with a more evil motive? Illegals crossing the desert also need to know there is a risk. She equates what her group is doing to the Red Cross. Only one problem. Unless they are brought under the umbrella of the Red Cross they aren't the Red Cross. Is our immigration policy to become an International Matter?
There isn't a war on the border. I don't see any tanks out there. You want to see a war, (see further down) send troops from Fort Huachuca. Are other countries forbidden from keeping out illegal immigrants?
This has been said before. The United States/Mexico border is one of the few in the world where an advanced nation meets a developing one. So our border problems are unique. September 11th added a more sinister element to this.
What's to be done? Let's look at some of the options:
1. What is going on now. Come on in y'all. Well this isn't fair to folks who came legally did the right thing and worked to become citizens? Also, we need to know who is here, especially post 9/11.
2. Shut off virtually all immigration. Sounds like a plan, huh? How many American citizens want to pick lettuce in the San Joaquin Valley in California? To do that, we would need a nationwide welfare system. For example, someone on welfare in Chicago would be put on a plane to California at Federal expense and sent to work in the fields. They would be told, this is your new career, too bad, so sad. How much political will is there to have that? How many employers will still see it as "we'd still have to pay too much for labor?"
3. Fortify the border completely. Make it one giant military zone, with Fort Huachuca covering the entire border. Forget the Border Patrol, heavily armed soldiers patrol our border. Anyone who tries to cross is shot on sight no questions asked. I already hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Plus we do trade with Mexico, we can’t hide behind the fence completely. Arizona and Sonora are connected whether some people want them to be or not. Our economies are united in some ways.
4. Pump major amounts of money into Mexico. If they don't have to, they will stop coming. British Prime Minister Tony Blair had the G-8 concentrate heavily on African debt relief and the drawbacks of corruption there. Much of the same arguments can be made vis a vis Mexico. We need to work out some sort of system to give them a transfusion without humiliating them.
5. This leaves a guestworker program. It would not stop illegal immigration completely. At least though, we would be realistic, admit the folks who are going to take these jobs anyway, but have a record of them and make sure they don't get "lost."
I would like to see my desert less littered with the detritus of the migrants. Especially our wildlife areas and parks near the border. I would like to not feel I need a firearm to drive near a border in MY COUNTRY!!
Yes, we need to solve this. We also cannot shut off immigration because in many ways immigrations is US!
posted by CactusCorner at 1:44 PM
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