RSS
Home
The illegal immigration debate sputters to a start
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
The illegal immigration debate was set to begin Wednesday, June 17th but a scheduling conflict cancelled the bi-partisan meeting in Washington D.C. Perhaps fundamentally changing the world’s best health care system got in the way of amnesty proposals from the white house. Perhaps the brewing firestorm over the illegal firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin distracted this administration from securing a campaign promise by President Obama to enact immigration reform in his first year. Whatever the case may be, our nation is struggling to cope with the effects of 12 million illegal citizens.
In Nebraska, we recently passed a bill that would deny public benefits to illegal citizens, and encourage private businesses to use the E-Verify system before hiring individuals. The bill will not directly curb the estimated $126 million tax payer burden associated with education, emergency medical care, and incarceration of illegal immigrants. However, the bill prohibits funds for public housing, retirement benefits, welfare benefits, post secondary education benefits, food assistance, and unemployment benefits. The bill does allow for K-12 students to attend schools, and provides emergency medical care regardless of citizenship status. Moreover, the children of illegal immigrants are still eligible to pay in-state tuition at Nebraska universities, colleges, and post secondary programs. For now it would seem that Nebraska is attempting to make Nebraska less attractive to illegal immigrants rather than recognizing the underlying issue: their presence in this country and this state is illegal. Nonetheless, the state of Nebraska is to be commended for their efforts, as this is a federal issue, one that has been botched and ignored leaving every state in the union in a bind.
Nations have borders as a matter of protection, just as nations have immigration laws in order to ensure an ordered society. An ordered society is to the benefit of all that participate in a particular society. The great failure to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders has led Phoenix, Arizona to resemble Mexico City in terms of kidnapping and extortion crimes by Mexican drug cartels. Vote hungry politicians have jeopardized our safety as an open southern border has led to the proliferation of drug trade, weapons exchange, and with a destabilizing Mexican state, the threat of a terrorist attack grows more each day.
A simple pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants does not address the issue of border security, it merely secures a voting bloc for the Democrat party. Republicans pathetically attempted to secure that vote themselves with an amnesty push from John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and President Bush in 2007. Even after that effort, Hispanics overwhelmingly voted democrat in the 2008 elections, thereby rejecting Republican populous pandering. If our government was to act in our best interest, they would address our porous borders and the rampant crime associated with them before offering a pathway to citizenship for those that came here illegally. But our best interest is never the goal.
What of assimilation into our culture? The presence of millions of illegal immigrants has prompted multi-cultural studies to become its very own industry in America. American students are taught to respect other cultures at all costs, while seldom are the reminders of our own cultures uniqueness and beauty. Too often these programs devolve into multi- colorism rather than multi-culturalism, and our culture is chided as being selfish, greedy, and inhumane. It is no wonder then, after a generation of being led to believe that we are a bad country, with a bad system, and bad people, that illegal immigrants have shown virtually no interest in assimilating to our culture. Rather, as evidenced by the kidnapping rate in Arizona, the rise in violence and beheadings by gangs like the Latin Kings and MS-13, illegal immigrants have brought a piece of their culture with them, and we are worse off than we were.
Finally, it is time for a real solution. A solution that secures our borders, punishes illegal activity, and preserves the sovereignty of the United States. Perhaps a large National Guard presence on our borders would help. We could also offer illegal immigrants the opportunity to turn themselves in, deport, and return legally. If they wish not to report and deport, and they are found still to live here illegally, they should then be barred from reentering the nation. Our current immigration policies and unwillingness to enforce our laws is absolutely suicidal to a nation and a national identity. To reward illegal immigrants with a direct pathway to citizenship without punishment of any kind, and without first securing our borders will only serve to encourage others to break the law. We should celebrate and reward legal immigration, unfortunately we seem to be on the path to celebrating and rewarding illegal immigration instead.
For more information:
Related Articles:
Comments
