The Immigration Issue: Then, Now, and Ahead

Lou Dobbs scares me. He is on a mission to raise awareness about the illegal immigrant population, and the cost of their being here. He suggests that we are not only taxing ourselves through the educational system, the healthcare system, and a variety of other ways that public institutions are being used by non-taxpayers. Today, I heard something from Lou that I'd not heard before: our natural resources, like water, are in danger from overpopulation. In response to the recent controversy over immigration over the summer, I decided to learn Spanish. Likewise, I suppose I should begin doing all I can to recycle, conserve water, and not pollute more than necessary.

If people are moving here from Mexico and Latin America, then they are moving here, and if they are going to stay, we should all do the best we can to make room for them. Otherwise, we will feel marginalized in our own country. Change is inevitable, so why not change for the better? For one thing, if we are going to have a large population of illegal immigrants, why aren't they made to pay taxes? According to CNN, the illegal immigrants are paid twice the minimum wage. I don't have a problem with learning a new language; I don't have a problem with immigration. I do have a problem paying taxes if others are not paying taxes. But how difficult is it to fix that?

Since the beginning of the United States, people who were here first didn't like those who were new. The Jews were not welcome; the eastern Europeans were not welcome, the Irish were not welcome; the Italians were not welcome. Now, the Mexicans are getting the same not welcome arrival, so how is this any different except for the space in time that it is happening? It seems that the problem that many US citizens have is with the fact that illegal immigrants aren't paying taxes, aren't screened for criminal backgrounds, and are commiting crimes here in the US once they leave their native countries.

Other problems people seem to be expressing is that their neighborhoods are changing and look different. Dalton, GA, is a town that was once a white population, and now is heavily populated with hispanic immigrants. However, local industry leaders in Dalton say that the people who worked in the factories there retired in the 1990's, and their children have not taken their jobs. The children have moved away or to other industries, so the immigrant population is a great boom to their economy.

In considering this, we have to ask ourselves, where would we be now if only English and Scottish immigrants had ever come to the US? What would our country be like without the immigrants? What is so bad about living with immigrants? Change is stressful, even when it's positive, so how long will it take for those of us who were born here to parents and grandparents born here to accept and work with those who are new on the block? How do we fix the problems with taxation and education? How do we prepare for tapping our natural resources? There has to be a way to make this work, but in order for that to happen, don't we have to all work together?

The problem here is that the immigration is benefiting the wealthy, creating a new population of low wage workers who will not be receiving health care, social security, or equal citizenship in the form of the right to vote. If the government grants the illegal immigrants who are here working citizenship, they will have all of these things. However, if this happens, how do we control the influx of more immigrants? How do we determine who will get citizenship and who doesn't? And, the more disturbing question is, what real options do we have anyway? Is there any way to control it at all? Is this something that the US government simply has no control over anymore? By embracing immigration, can we make this a better change than by fighting it? Why can't we make this something that enriches our nation rather than something that damages it?Nifty("div.genericSCorner","top");