Immigration- a Thorn in America's Side

Immigration is the great domestic debate of our time. Strong sentiments pull at the American people vying for a majority. However, a consensus is unlikely in today's polarized political climate. Necessary action is stagnated while politicians mull over the options. Prolonged ruminations are useless to the people they are meant to help. So many travelers have braved the harsh journey northward for a chance at a better life. Upon arriving in the land of the free, they are often greeted with prejudice, humiliation, and a lack of sympathy. Or worse, they are simply ignored. This is to say nothing of the horrors they face before even reaching our border. These actions are no longer acceptable in our enlightened times. The world's only remaining super power must act like one again. The border must also be secured in this terror stricken era. To meet both these needs, America must militarize and humanize its border with Mexico.

The first question in the immigration debate is what to do with all those illegal aliens already here. The sheer logistics of deporting them are astronomical. The nation's resources would be better spent focusing on preventing future trespassers. President Bush's guest worker program is compelling and laudable for its attempt to solve the seemingly unsolvable American debate. Democracy's greatest tenet is consensus, and America's is no exception. The president's proposal not only lives up to that ideal, but also presents a viable road into the discussion. Action is needed. Agreement is vital. The program provides both. Recognizing that imposing martial law and sending eleven million people back from whence they came is unacceptable and extraordinarily expensive is the first step towards a comprehensive stance on this subject. Giving those millions a place of work in American society, and levying the taxes we all must pay to support our great community is the second step. The final step is seeing beyond the statistics. Putting aside the 'nightmare scenarios,' the welfare numbers, the purported crime rates, and the 'unstoppable flow,' one can see only the people those cold numbers represent. We already know there is room enough in the celebrated American family to house these people. They are already here. Faced with the alternative, these steps are the only America can take.

But what to do about the border itself? It must be patrolled comprehensively, unlike the current knee jerk and reactionary procedures the Border Patrol follows. The border does not need to be sealed by any stretch of the imagination. It cannot remain as porous as it is today, but America does not need to build a DMZ style rampart along the length of Mexico. Control is needed. If that includes a physical structure, then so be it. Along the way at key points in this great barrier America should place vast entryway complexes. Included in these would be medical facilities, temporary housing, competency and learning centers, food banks, and a strong military police presence. It would be in these complexes that prospective immigrants would be screened and sorted. Those deemed suitable for entry into the United States would be admitted as citizens. The not so apt among the applicants would be redirected for further education to special holding facilities until deemed fit for participation in the American way of life. This control would serve the American people and the immigrants seeking asylum far better than the current system.

In the end, ideals must come to terms with realities. America cannot ignore the immigration issue. It affects too many. American workers cry out for justice and jobs. Immigrants seek exactly the same. A gaping hole in the security of this nation must be sealed, for terrorists do not care who they kill, be they illegal or free born Americans. The abilities and limitations of America must also be recognized. But as the only remaining superpower, a much better policy can be implemented. As Viet D Dinh, a clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, and writer for the New York Times and Harvard Law Review, puts it,

To maintain a democratically consistent asylum policy would, I recognize, not be easy. The administrative demands would require a larger immigration bureaucracy than we now have. And reform to streamline exclusion procedures faces imposing obstacles. Asylum reform could also result in a flood of refugees who would add to our welfare rolls and unemployment lines. But if we believe these obstacles are insurmountable, we must be willing to say that although we would like to give refuge to all who are persecuted, we cannot do so given our limited capacity for mercy. In any case, whatever our capacity for asylum, we owe all claimants at least an opportunity to present their case. We cannot rely on legal gimmicks to escape the burdens a genuinely democratic and morally consistent asylum policy would place on us (Mills 221).

For what are the democratic and moral virtues we espouse without consistency? A far more comprehensive approach to the immigration question is needed. Millions are crossing while Washington seems to sit and wait for an epiphany to strike. We have reached the future envisioned by our great past leaders. The time for a fresh perspective is now. The time for action is now. The longer we wait to put forth a comprehensive immigration policy worthy of American ideals, the more we extend the suffering of the huddled masses seeking asylum and the frustration of America at large.

Peter D. Salins is a champion of America's ethnic heritage. A child of successful German immigrants commenting on European immigration policies, he puts the idea this way, "The United States, in contrast, always made immigrants eligible for a citizenship that conferred on them full membership in American state and society, with all attendant rights and privileges (save one - the right to run for and be elected president.)" (Roleff 221). Simply placing the ability to immigrate legally is not enough in these contemporary times, however. The ideal of immigration must be kept, with a modern twist and modern security. Throwing open the gates to America would prove disastrous, but sealing them without compassion would be worse.

A current reality is the war with Iraq. Such immense proposals certainly could not come to fruition with such a heavy burden already in place. Amid rising violence in a civil war far from America's borders, old voices are making themselves heard. According to the Iraq Study Group Report, the Untied States must persuade Iran to use its leverage in Iraq to help codify that nation. To not do so would prove disastrous for not only Iran, but the entire region. But as one Iraqi official told the Iraq Study Group, "Iran is negotiating with the Untied States on the streets of Baghdad." (USIP 25). Until more direct talks are held with Iran, these 'street' negotiations will continue much to our disadvantage. The Iran/Iraqi border is already more heavily patrolled than the American/Mexican border. America must now look to its own safekeeping. The homeland can only be secured when the true threats are realized. The lofty ambitions the current administration had for Iraq are no longer attainable. Focus on a dissolving national identity for a country across the Atlantic distracts from our own looming dissolution as a nation. Theodore Roosevelt warned against the danger divided allegiances undermining one national union (United States). George Washington warned against foreign entanglements endangering America (Avalon Project). These two giants of American history provide powerful guidance even hundreds of years later. The congress must heed these calls if America is to endure.

The past will always be an influence on the future, it is human nature. Progress in technology and hate towards America has reared its head as well these days. But if America conforms to the rest of the worlds way of thinking, if we act more as the United Nations than the United States, then those who would call us their enemy have won an irreversible victory. They have dealt American prestige and power a lasting blow. To stagnate on the pertinent issues is to compare Kofi Annan to President Bush. 400,000 dead in Darfur, 2.5 million displaced form their homes, untold numbers beaten, starving, and raped, and the United Nations is still debating whether or not to classify it as genocide. America stands apart because it is the new ideal, the great experiment. But how can we retain those standards if we are so focused on the outside world that tunnel vision has cut off our peripheral sight and our own southern border? America is the great experiment because we have forged a government worth fighting for. To abandon that now by letting a thorn in our side grow to a gaping wound that bleeds the nation to death is unconscionable and truly un-American.

Works Cited

CNN Wire. Editor. Iraqi president slated to meet Monday with Iranian counterpart. 26
26 Nov 2006.

Mills, Nicolaus. Arguing Immigration, Are Immigrants a Wealth of Diversity...or a Crushing Burden?
1994 Touchstone, New York.

Roleff, Tamra L. Immigration, Opposing Viewpoints in World History.
2004 Greenhaven Press, San Diego.

United States. Biography of Theodore Roosevelt.

United States. Institute of Peace. Iraq Study Group. Iraq Study Group Report.
Nov 2006

Yale Law School. The Avalon Project. George Washington's Farewell Address 1796.
1996
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm>