This article from the Merced Sun-Star outlines the importance of passing immigration reform legislation next year. Democrats recognize that their historic majorities are likely to slip in the 2010 elections, especially their 60 seat filibuster-proof majority.
Even with the current numbers, reform is likely to be an uphill battle. Nevertheless, it's a discussion that's long overdue.
6 comments:
Problem isn't immigration, it is
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Get it?
Or are borders ink on a map, and there is no such thing as national sovereignty?
Oh yes, I get it.
I get it that you (and your cohort) like to hide behind this oversimplification of the immigration problem.
I get it that anti-immigration folks use the mantra "I'm against illegal immigration" as an excuse to excoriate all Latinos, some of whom are undocumented, but a fair number are legal residents and citizens.
And I get it that people who use this guise do so as a way of avoiding the crux of the problem: that we Americans are the source of this problem. WE hire the undocumented, we ignore and violate our own labor laws, and we turn a blind eye to the issue UNLESS we have to deal with the consequences of our actions. In this case, is that you can't have abundant cheap labor and all of the benefits that go along with it and not have to address the fact that people who do that labor are going to live here.
I'm personally not interested in trying to excoriate all Latinos. But I will say this. If the Latino community feels unfairly persecuted by anti-illegal immigration sentiment, they should clean up their own house and take a position on this issue. If not, expect some dirty looks time to time from Americans disgusted with wage reduction in America for the sake of cheap labor.
It's not exactly water hoses and lynchings, so the Latino community should stop their constant attempts to coat-tail onto the civil rights movement every time a locality exercises its right to discourage illegal immigration by actually enforcing U.S. laws like prohibitions on identity fraud, tax fraud, driving without a liscence. Things that "gringos" aren't generally allowed to do.
The real source of the problem is the way both parties are co-opted by big business, and the American people en masse don't have an advocate on this issue.
Anonymous, the Latino community has organized on this issue--remember the marches on Washington two years ago?
No, it's not water hoses and lynchings in the conventional sense, but it you pick up a newspaper or even set up a simple google alert, you'll find that there have been incidents where immigrants were attacked and beaten, in one well-documented case (http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?pid=424) then left for dead. Then there are the countless reports of police officers pulling over Latinos because the look suspicious (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020403774.html).
The problem, as I see it, is that the issue has been co-oped by an extremist lobby that wants to oversimplify the issue (cite Mr. tude dog above) and in the process, demonize immigrants.
I grew up in Los Angeles, CA, the second largest Mexican city.
My sister married a Mexican, and her children have that heritage (her husband was, well, not a decent fellow, but that cuts across ethnic lines.)
One of my brothers nieces had a child by a Chicano (whatever that means) and named that child after me.
I worked in an industry which heavily hired Mexican/Americans, which accounted for half my personal friends.
I love Mexican food, customs and work ethic.
I have always been honest with them, and they with me.
I don't hide behind anything.
The disruption to a particular society, with massive immigration, without work documents can often times cause resentment.
This is particularly bad when so many are not well educated, and willing to work for much less than the local population.
Don't get me wrong, for the most part I believe those coming here are doing that for all the best of reasons, at the same time I don't feel that I need to support them with my taxes.
It is no secret that Mexico is a most corrupt country, not to mention the Central American countries.
The solution to this problem is in the countries that these people flee.
Dear tude dog, I am pleased to see that you seem to have come around to the idea that the problem is broader than legal vs. illegal immigration.
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