Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Immigration vs. Illegal Immigration

Unless Native American or of Native American descent, all United States citizens are either immigrants or are of immigrant descent. We are a country of immigrants, the Great Melting Pot of history. We are a country of immigrants who became Americans. We are not a country of "ethnic" diversity, although almost all ethnicities are represented in our population. We are Americans who are proud of our heritages, but prouder yet to be Americans.

The Nation's first law concerning immigration was the Naturalization Act of 1790, and numerous other laws relating to the subject have been passed in the 220 years since. It is a world-wide common practice for countries to restrict and control who may enter their countries and under what circumstances and with what rights and responsibilities. In the 21st Century, no country with a viable national government allows unrestricted passage through its borders. Early in our history, we needed settlers to populate our lands and help us build a great country. We not only welcomed all qualified immigrants, we gave many of them land. The Homestead Act allowed anyone in the country legally to qualify for free land until the Act was repealed in 1976 (Alaska 1986.) Immigrants helped us to expand from sea to shining sea.

The current illegal immigration catastrophe in the United States has nothing to do with Europeans (the source of most of the legal immigrants throughout our history), Asians (the first specific ethnic group to be restricted by our immigration laws), Africans, Australians or those from South America. It is not a Hispanic issue, for many Hispanics are proud United States citizens who contribute greatly to our national strength and prosperity. It is not a race issue, for brown is a common color of many of our citizens. It is a national sovereignty issue. The current illegal immigration catastrophe is caused by the influx of Mexican Nationals into our country through our southern border without proper documentation and authorization. Because the numbers of illegal Mexican Nationals crossing our southern border is so huge, there is no doubt that many violent criminals and even terrorists are entering our country using this same route.

There are three reasons that we face an illegal immigration catastrophe today: 1. Crime, poor economic opportunity, and a corrupt government in Mexico. 2. Lack of resolve in the United States to stem the tide of illegals by restricting employment opportunities and strengthening border security. 3. Political shenanigans in Washington in order to capture the Hispanic vote and increase the Hispanic voter base by giving "purified" illegals an easy path to citizenship.

There are three things that must be done to protect our national sovereignty and stop the influx of undocumented and unauthorized Mexican Nationals from entering our country: 1. Pass and enforce employment laws that make it untenable for US employers to hire undocumented workers of all nationalities. 2. Secure our southern border by assigning more law enforcement/military personnel to border security duty with authorization to use whatever force is necessary to stop the movement of illegal personnel across our border. 3. Create a Documented Worker program that allows Mexican Nationals to apply for work permits while in Mexico that will allow them to enter the US legally in order to fill jobs determined to lack US citizen manpower to fill (a Work Visa program.)

2 comments:

  1. How would point 1 (employment laws) been enforced? By placing additional requirements on the employers? It is the job of the United States government to stop illegal immigration, not employers. They have enough to deal with.

    Good post though.

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  2. Enforce existing law. Simply make the penalties for not following current employment law more severe. The employment laws are not to stop illegal immigration, they are to make it unpleasant for those illegals already here to stay. The government cannot build a fence and man it 24 hours per day around every employer in the United States. Hopefully, they can do that on the border with Mexico in order to stop the continued influx of Mexican Nationals into our country without the proper documentation and authorization.

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